Rethink Iran: It’s More Than You Expect

Should you cancel that Iran vacation?

Whilst some are now seeking to build walls and put up barriers, Iran is inviting people in. It is open wand wants to open further, it is changing and offers people an experience they will not experience elsewhere.

Why travel to Iran?

To answer this question, we should first answer why people travel anywhere. Outside of family or business reasons, we can say with some confidence, that people seek a subversion of their day to day reality, they want difference to take them out of mundaneness in search of something else, something greater, so that they themselves change in the process.

In this context, I wanted to make the case that Iran can best fulfill the reasons why people travel.

Iran is different from anywhere else. The expansion of the tourism industry has seen many destinations reach saturation point, which has led people to seek new destinations that remains truly different from where they came.

Iran provides that. Whether it is the culture and traditions that have developed over 5,000 years, some of which are national and some of which remain regional, all of them remain for tourists to engage with, be challenged by and learn from.

This extends well beyond ancient traditions, though. Iranians have a particular habit of Iranising everything without a second thought. Pizza’s for instance have their sauce on top of the pizza and almost always served with lemon.

McDonalds transforms into Mashdonalds!

McDonalds transforms into Mashdonalds in Iran which specialises in Falafel sandwiches. From the profound to the mundane, everything is transformed in Iran, which consequently offers people uniqueness. In a world where everything is becoming more similar, Iran offers uniqueness to people, something which can’t be created artificially.

Iran is great. Iran, whilst unique, also has a story that tells that can appeal to everyone as it touches on so many aspects of human history.

Whether its through the creation of some of the earliest civilisations on earth, the emergence of the Persian empire and its epic battles with Greek and Roman empire, its role in the Golden Age of Islam with its advances in science, mathematics and in the arts, such as the emergence of Rumi and Hafez to the successive invasions it has seen to the modern-day creation of an Islamic Republic.

Modern day Iran is a combination of all these in one country, which speaks to its diversity and capacity for change but also leaves so much for a traveller to explore, as all of these developments have left their legacy.

Iran isn’t one thing, it’s many things at once. It speaks to so many aspects of our collective nature as people.

Iran will transform you

Iran will transform you. To process the world in an interpretable way, people often refer to stereotypes as a way to understand different places. In Iran’s case, these stereotypes have developed through the prism of international relations, in particular through the hostility of some governments to the Iranian one.

The biggest transformation consequently that occurs when people travel to Iran is that full realisation that Iran isn’t just made up of a government or a social system but of 80 million unique individuals, all of whom have their own desires and dreams and many of which delight in interacting with foreigners in whatever way they can.

Many people want to talk with you, talk selfies with you, look at you and sometimes to spend time with you.

This speaks to the already existing openness within Iranian people to others but also speaks to the fact that travelling to Iran is occurring in an important historical context. The nuclear deal between the P 5+1 and the subsequent lifting of sanctions offers an unparalleled opportunity for exchange between Iran and the rest of the world.

Tourism is unique in that it allows that one on one exchange which is crucial to the breakdown of barriers.

Now is not the time to build walls

Whilst some are now seeking to build walls and put up barriers, Iran is inviting people in. It is open wand wants to open further, it is changing and offers people an experience they will not experience elsewhere.

These are the reasons that we are seeking an expansion of tourism into Iran, as well as the range of products, in order to broaden the scope of experiences that tourists can undergo while in the country.

Visit Persia on a Private Train

One of the most exciting ones is exploring Iran on a private luxury train tour through Iran rail tours.

This is able to combine seeing all of the major sights in Iran, interactions with local people, a level of comfort that is not matched on other tours with the romance and excitement of being able to travel across the diverse Iranian landscape.

This is an opportunity for all tourism operators to come and take part in what is one of the last great untapped markets in tourism, whilst being assured that the product on offer is of the highest possible standard.

It is for all these reasons we hope to see you in Iran.