Business tourism is mainly related to business gatherings and exhibitions and thus covers a vast section of the trips. This branch of tourism is not dependent on the vacation season and for this reason even in off-season months of the year when the number of travelers is low, it can increase the hotel occupancy levels.
Iran can be an appropriate place for business tourism for the following reasons: being located in the business rout of central Asia, having port Facilities, being located in the rout of business relation of Turkey and the East, being close to the markets of Afghanistan, Iraq, and central Asia.
Iran has the potential to improve business tourism through the exhibitions and conferences held in Tehran, Mashhad, Tabriz, Isfahan, Shiraz and some other big cities of the country. At present, the statistics for the exhibitions held in the neighboring Arab countries in the south and China show an upward increase; European countries have also been able to fix their position in this market through their crowded exhibitions. In 2001 Gold Coast which was mentioned before was able to earn 606 million dollars through its business gatherings.
Reasons for the importance of business tourism:
Business tourists usually stay and spend in one place and on average each of them spends around 360 dollars per night. Generally, the business tourists pay well for food and accommodation. This branch of tourism acts independently of the vacation season and that is why the hotels and travel agencies cooperate with the business enterprises to plan their programs for the off-season months of the year. This would help increase the number of the tourists in these times of the year and rent more hotel rooms as such.
But there is one feature of the business tourism, in fact, its most important one which is not directly related to tourism industry; that is to say, business tourism informs the economic activists of the business and industrial facilities of the host country which can in turn lead to more investment in these regions.
