Educational workshop on ecotourism

Ecotourism workshop was held with the aim of delivering seminars on and examining the mutual effects of tourism and environment and also highlighting the principles of sustainable tourism. There have been widespread discussions based on international statistics and valid scientific resources concerning the ecotourism, sustainable tourism and international approach toward ecotourism industry and the necessity of considering Iran's environment as the main tourism infrastructure. Unsustainable destruction of Iran's natural resources (by providing real samples) that has imposed serious damages to environment and tourism attractions have been among subjects of discussions during the workshop. As the participants of these workshops were mainly active in this field and those in charge of holding Eco Tours, great experiences were exchanged and sustainable tourism barriers in Iran were discussed. Methods of effective training on sustainable tourism and its economic attractions, as a developing industry in the world, were also referred in the workshop. Iran as a vast country with a wide variety of climates and unique natural-cultural characteristics is at fifth rank among the countries in terms of the potentials for natural tourism; while its rank is now 119 out of 141.