The Best Tourist Villages of the UNWTO 2024 Are Being Selected

According to MirasArja and the Public Relations and Information Center of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts, Seyyed Mostafa Fatemi stated: The UNWTO has, since 2021, put forth a subject titled "Best Tourism Villages" with the aim of introducing those rural destinations where tourism is considered a tool for sustainable growth or for preserving the unique cultural and natural heritage of that village. The Director-General of the Office for Domestic Tourism Development continued: Fortunately, the village of Kandovan in Iran was successful in this aforementioned plan in 2023 as Iran's first village and is currently on the list of global tourism villages. This year, we hope to witness the success of other Iranian villages in this global competition. He emphasized: This year, after several meetings of the National Rural Tourism Council at the Deputy Ministry of Tourism, comprising representatives from the Ministry of Interior, Housing Foundation, Alavi Foundation, and specialized offices of the Deputy Ministry of Tourism, 130 villages from across the country entered the initial selection phase. Following evaluations and field visits, this number was reduced to 10 villages. By completing the files by provincial managers and sending them to the Deputy Ministry of Tourism by the end of Farvardin of the current year, Iran's share of benefiting from the international opportunity created by the UNWTO will be preserved. According to the Director-General of the Office for Domestic Tourism Development, the villages of Abyaneh in Isfahan province, Kandolus in Mazandaran province, Bisheh in Lorestan province, Mimand in Kerman province, Fahraj in Yazd province, Palangan in Kurdistan province, Esfehak in South Khorasan province, Qaleh Bala in Semnan province, Soheili in Hormozgan province, and Ghasemabad in Gilan province will be on the list of 10 candidate villages for global competition, from which ultimately 8 files from Iran will be sent to the UNWTO to participate in this competition. The selection criteria for global villages include the promotion and protection of cultural resources, economic sustainability, social sustainability, environmental sustainability, tourism value chain development and integration, tourism governance and prioritization, infrastructure and connectivity, and health, safety, and security. The initiatives and actions of each selected village regarding these criteria will be included in the submitted files. The Director-General of the Office for Domestic Tourism Development listed the duties of the provincial departments for completing the global village files as: holding meetings with the relevant unit for villages in the governorate to cooperate in completing infrastructure and holding related festivals, producing promotional clips and teasers in English, preparing related promotional materials, designing websites, photographing the village's tourist attractions, documenting the provision of infrastructure, making village tourist attractions accessible to disabled and less-abled individuals, and carrying out environmental protection tasks such as waste reduction strategies, waste collection, etc., as part of the assigned provincial executive tasks. Fatemi explained the potential achievements if Iranian villages can reach this global status: Villages that are introduced by the UNWTO will benefit from international publicity and promotional advantages as outstanding examples of a rural tourism destination. They will receive the "Best Global Villages" plaque and will be members of the Global Villages Network for three years. Furthermore, a space for exchanging experiences and training, and overall, assisting in the growth of rural tourism in the country, are among the achievements of this initiative. Over the three years of implementing the Best Tourism Villages project, the UNWTO has added 130 villages to the Global Tourism Villages Network list.