Vice President and Head of Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHHTO) Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, said that an Irano-European Consortium will invest dlrs two billion in Iran tourism.
The statement was made in an interview with IRNA, at the end of Mashaei's four-day visit to Madrid.
The vice president said that the grounds have been prepared for signing the relevant agreements.
He noted that such investments in tourism sector mainly focus on establishment of infrastructures and improvement of rendering tourist services and facilities.
"Iranian government is firmly determined to use the country's historical and natural capacities," he added.
The ICHHTO head said that in a meeting with the Spanish Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Joan Clos, agreement was reached on formation of a joint committee for implementation of memorandum of understanding (MoU) on cooperation between the two sides in the sector.
"Spanish tourist officials promised that they will share experience with Iran and declared their readiness for any type of cooperation to promote Iran's tourism industry.
"At Iran's proposal, a conference will be held in the current Christian year, during which tourism in Iran and ways of cooperation with Spain will be discussed," he added.
Mashaei said that according to the agreement reached between the two sides, Spanish media people and owners of travelling agencies will visit Iran to get an idea on the country.
Turning to his meeting with the United Nations deputy secretary general of the World Tourism Organization (WTO), Taleb Rafaei in Madrid, he said that the readiness of WTO for cooperation with Iran was declared.
"Besides, he said that WTO is prepared to ignore the false image of Iran built up by the Western media and exposed to the world public opinion.
"Meanwhile, at the meeting I expressed Iranian expectations from WTO and Spain to help eliminate the negative impacts on the public opinion created by the political ill-wishers of Iran," he added.
The vice president said that his talks with the Spanish Prime Minister Filippe Gonzalez and Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos were fruitful.
"In my meeting with Moratinos, issues of bilateral, regional and international concern were on the agenda and readiness of both sides for expansion of ties was underlined," he added.
In his meeting with Gonzalez, the latest developments of the Middle East and world were also discussed.
He referred to his tour to Spain's International Tourism Exhibition, dubbed `Fitur', as one of the best part of his visit, adding that it was attended by more than 13,000 tourist companies from 170 countries.
© IRNA 2007
