With an ambitious annual visitor target of 20 million by 2025 – a five-fold increase – Iran is set to become one of the region's most lucrative hotel development markets, according to Peter Blackburn, President and CEO of the Cristal Group.
Following the recent agreement with international negotiators on capping nuclear capacity, trade and financial sanction are due to be lifted in 2016, paving the way for expansion of the country's infrastructure and industrial base, he said.
There has already been a huge influx of business traffic in to Iran which has underlined the lack of accommodation in the capital Tehran that has an estimated 100 hotels, many of which are in need of renovation.
The group already operates hotels in the Iraq, Lebanon and the UAE, with further properties under development and negotiation in Saudi Arabia, Kurdistan and Turkey, and Mr Blackburn said Iran would be a natural fit in the group's growing portfolio.