The fifth congress on tourism training was held in Tabriz. The meeting was attended by the manager of East Azerbaijan Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization. Mr. Akhavan, the chair of the board of directors of Marcopolo Iran Touring Company, emphasizing the necessity and effect of holding such congresses on the development of tourism industry, said, “holding such seminars provides an appropriate opportunity to make close connection between different travel agencies and to exchange updated information between the staff and the managers of travel agencies which has satisfaction of the clients in consequence. He also pointed out that in such congresses, the active travel agents can get informed of the development in tourism industry and of the new approaches towards attracting tourists which can, in turn, result in the development of the industry in Iran. Mr. Akhavan asserted that the main achievement of congresses of this type is the face-to-face interaction between the officials and the public; hence, government officials are informed of their ideas and can plan upon their requests. He also announced that 30 percent of Marcopolo stocks is ready to be offered to the managers of travel agencies in Iran and predicted that Tabriz would be the first in the list of the purchasers. He also suggested that a fixed location would be decided upon for the regular tours in Tabriz.
Mr. Zahedi, the general manager of Marcopolo Voyages Company, pointed out that the purpose of such a congress is to make the sales agents familiar with the features of the offered destinations so that they could better inform the clients. He added despite the fact that training plays the key role in the industry, not enough attention has been paid to it; so in-service training is highly needed.
Mohammad Maleki, one of the experienced in the profession, and the executive manager of the congress, emphasized the importance of training and added that unfortunately, at the moment, training is done in a quite traditional way and if we are after progress in tourism industry, we should include academic and specialized training in our planning. In this way, not only can we increase the staff knowledge and capabilities, but we can also augment the financial benefit of the industry.