A semi-governmental department was established after the Iran-Iraq war to protect and preserve the achievements and effects of the eight-year war. The responsibilities of this department are as follows:
Research, compile, preserve, and develop literature and related culture on the history of the eight-year war.
Select and maintain physical works, including military, trophies, places, and post-war sites.
Compile the history of warfare in war museums and monuments.
Planning and organization for a War Memorials.
Preserve war cultural heritages and developed to transmit this heritage to future generations and other nations.
Publication of magazines and books related to documents from the eight-year war.
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The war between Iran and Iraq (1980–1988) occurred in the land of five western providence of Iran namely Khozestan Ilam, Kermanshahan, Kurdistan, and Azarbayjan.
Regarding post-war tourism, the regions were divided into three main sections as follows: Khuzestan and Ilam in southwest, Kermanshahan and Kurdistan in the west, and Azerbaijan in the northwest (Figure 4.9).
Five Paths and some attractions (e.g. Martyr’s Memorials, remaining weapons in war sites, and a War Museum) have been defined to travel to these post-war zones. Among all three zones, the southwest areas are receiving more visitors because of important cities such as Abadan and Khorramshahr as well as the historical and natural attractions in Khozestan province.
Figure 4.9: Post-war tourism zones in Iran Source: National Cartographic Center of Iran
(2012)
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This research context in the southwest part of Iran, Shalamcheh, and Arvand are two war sites defined around Khorramshahr as a post-war tourism attraction site. The most important advantage of these two points is that they are close to cities; therefore, they provide transportation, accommodation, and security issues are more convenient.
Another important aspect of Shalamcheh is where the first ground attack on Iran occurred here in this borderland.
In springs, the southwest region has the best weather condition that coincides with the Iranian New Year holidays, led by a flow of tourists in March and April to Khozestan province and Khorramshahr. In terms of governmental managed groups in the post-war regions, these groups are arranged by semi-governmental or military sectors, which are called Rahian-Noor. It is conducted with the participation of the three sectors: military departments, government agencies, and religious public movements. Seated-Rahian-Noor is the headquarters for supervising departments of these three sections. The members of this committee are responsible for organizing governmental and military sections. Activities like religious rituals and narration for the sacrifices of veterans are arranged in this sector during post-war travels. Based on weather conditions in different seasons, groups travel to the post-war zones in three periods during a year: 1. southwest part in springs; northwest in summers; and west in autumn. Governmental and military facilities for transportation and accommodation as well as volunteers in related services for visitors have led to low cost packages for visiting post-war regions. The economic trend of these packages is low-cost travel for all groups of people. Government statistics from 2011 indicate that approximately 75,000 private cars travelled to Khorramshahr. A total of 1.6 million visitors travelled by Rahian-Noor (governmental section) with 55%
for the first time and 70% under 29 years of age.
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4.8 Summary and Conclusion
This chapter provided an overview of the qualities of Khorramshahr during and after the war. In addition, it described the policies of the post-war reconstruction and tourism development in the country. In terms of urban destruction, this chapter demonstrates large-scale damage occurred to the urban infrastructure of Iran with the demolition of 328,340 residential and commercial buildings in 87 war-torn cities. It was also found that 88% of the urban fabric and infrastructure in Khorramshahr was damaged during the war when a number of cities were not considered for during-war reconstruction due to the risk of re-occupation. The next part of this chapter explained the potential of Iran as a high-ranking tourism attraction. After the war, the Iranian Government made an effort to recover from the tourism slump in terms of increasing the number of international tourists and promoting domestic travel. There is an undoubtedly greater scope to increase visitors from around the Islamic world. The vision for development plans for cultural heritage and tourism development in Iran shows that tourism development should be focused on increasing domestic tourism. A good share of the global tourism market through the diversification and use of all capacities are important goals for the governments. In particular, a priority should be placed on pilgrimage, nature, and cultural tourism.
In conclusion, in spite of the identified potentials, the war created a large gap between the tourism industry in Iran and the tourism industries in other developing countries within the Middle East. During the eight years of war in Iran, the majority of foreign tourists began to travel to neighbouring countries such as Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
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Although in the recent decade, government policies in both tourism and reconstruction emphasize two points of view. Firstly, efforts to reduce dependency on oil revenues by creating parallel income sources have encouraged the government to consider tourism aspects in comprehensive and strategic development plans. Secondly, the tourism development plan demonstrates that the government continues to increase visitor numbers and tourism revenues over the forecasted period in the international tourism and continues to focus on increasing domestic tourism to reduce unemployment and increase residential incomes.
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