Ahmad Dinari, Director General of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts of North Khorasan Province, wrote in a note: “The registration of the historical castle of Alamut and the associated fortifications on the UNESCO World Heritage List is a means of enhancing the status of a destination in the world’s tourism competitiveness system. With this auspicious event, the number of Iranian monuments registered on the UNESCO World Heritage List has reached 30, a capacity that places Iran among the countries with the richest cultural heritage in the world.” <\/p>\n\n
Previously, 29 historical and natural monuments of Iran were registered with UNESCO, including Chogha Zanbil, Persepolis, Isfahan’s Naqsh-e Jahan Square, Takht Soleyman, Bam Citadel Cultural Landscape, Pasargadae, Soltaniyeh Dome, Bisotun Inscription, Armenian Monastic Complex, Shushtar Water Structures, Tabriz Historical Bazaar, Sheikh Safi al-Din Ardebili Tomb, Iranian Garden, Isfahan Grand Mosque, Qaboos Dome Tower, Golestan Palace, Burnt City, Meymand Cultural Landscape, Susa, Iranian Aqueduct, Lut Plain, Historical City of Yazd, Sassanid Archaeological Landscape of Fars Region, Hyrcanian Forests, Iran’s National Railway, Oramanat Cultural Landscape, Historical Caravanserai of Iran, Hegmataneh, and Khorramabad Valley.<\/p>\n\n
But the important question is: what added value does World Heritage Site registration create for a historical monument and its surrounding area?<\/p>\n\n
In my opinion, the first achievement is a significant increase in credibility and global visibility.<\/p>\n\n
The title of “UNESCO World Heritage” is considered a prestigious international brand that draws the attention of the media, researchers, tourism industry activists, investors and millions of tourists to a destination. In fact, the global registration of a work transforms it from a national attraction to a destination of global importance, and its visit rate and footprint in Internet search engines also increase sharply, and in other words, “Iran’s tourism SEO is significantly improved.” <\/p>\n\n
The second consequence is the acceleration of destination branding. Building a tourism brand is usually a time-consuming and expensive process, but global registration significantly shortens this path. Public trust in the destination increases, its position in international markets improves, and the cost of its introduction and marketing is reduced. <\/p>\n\n
The third advantage is the strengthening of the heritage protection and management system. The World Register commits governments to implementing more stringent standards in the protection, restoration, monitoring, and sustainable management of monuments. Therefore, in many cases, we are witnessing increased attention from executive bodies, allocation of protection funds, improvement of infrastructure, and enhancement of the quality of tourism services in these areas. <\/p>\n\n
From an economic perspective, UNESCO-listed sites typically capture a larger share of the international tourism market. Many foreign tourists plan their travel plans based on the World Heritage List and prioritize visiting these sites. This can lead to increased tourist stays, boost local businesses, create job opportunities, increase investment, and develop the region’s tourism economy. <\/p>\n\n
However, I believe that World Heritage status is not the end of the road; it is the beginning of a great responsibility. Without a coherent program for destination management, visitor management, preservation of the authenticity of the work, empowerment of local communities, development of standard infrastructure, international marketing, and attraction of investment, many of the potentials of this global title will not be realized. <\/p>\n\n
The experience of many successful countries has shown that the true value of a global registration lies not in the title itself, but in the quality of intelligent exploitation of this opportunity.<\/p>\n\n
The World Heritage Site inscription of Alamut Castle is a valuable opportunity for Qazvin Province and Iran to strategically transform this unique heritage into one of the most prominent cultural and historical destinations in West Asia. This success will become a lasting achievement when conservation, management, investment, local community participation, and professional marketing go hand in hand. In such circumstances, the World Heritage Site inscription will not only preserve historical identity, but also become a driving force for tourism development, the local economy, and the promotion of Iran\u2019s international image. <\/p>\n\n
I congratulate all activists and lovers of Iran’s cultural heritage and historical identity on this auspicious event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ahmad Dinari, Director General of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts of North Khorasan Province, wrote in a note: “The registration of the historical castle of Alamut and the associated fortifications on the UNESCO World Heritage List is a means of enhancing the status of a destination in the world’s tourism competitiveness system. With this auspicious […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-notes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nkchto.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nkchto.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nkchto.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nkchto.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nkchto.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nkchto.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11306,"href":"https:\/\/nkchto.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11305\/revisions\/11306"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nkchto.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nkchto.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nkchto.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nkchto.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}