Governments do not generally collect detailed statistics about tourism unless they consider the sector significant enough to warrant systematic planning. Information about where tourists come from, how they arrive, where they stay, and how much they spend can help authorities determine where to invest in infrastructure and services.
Tourism also has a cultural and diplomatic dimension. Foreign visitors do not simply spend money. They form impressions of the country they visit. They return home with memories, photographs, stories, and judgments about the places they have seen.
For a country seeking to project a particular international image, tourism can therefore function as a form of informal cultural diplomacy.
Iran possessed an unusually powerful resource in this regard: its historical heritage.
The country was home to monuments and archaeological sites associated with some of the world’s most important ancient civilizations. Persepolis, Pasargadae, Isfahan, Shiraz, Tehran, Kashan, and numerous other destinations offered visitors access to different periods of Iranian history and culture.
For European tourists in particular, Iran represented a destination where ancient history could be encountered directly rather than simply studied in museums or books.
