March 17, 2023
An Iranian tourism official says the disruption of the internet by the government amid the protests has cost the country’s tourism industry dearly.
“It’s not good times for the tourism industry,” Hormatollah Rafi’ee, the president of the Association of Air Transport and Tourist Agencies of Iran, told the daily Entekhab, adding that in the previous 38 days, nearly 90 percent of all incoming tours to the country had been canceled.
He said travel agencies had been unable both to upload advertisements and to sell tourism packages via common messaging applications, which have been filtered by Iranian authorities. Furthermore, Rafi’ee said, there have been difficulties contacting passengers via such apps.
“The world today is one of technology,” he said. “The fact of the matter is that advertisements by my colleagues used to be put up on platforms such as Instagram and WhatsApp.”
Both of those applications were filtered by the government soon after the protests began in September.
The internet disruption and filtering are not the only issues, according to Rafi’ee. Foreign visitors, he said, are also wary of traveling to Iran given advisories issued by their governments in light of the protests.