سیما همتی

The issue of accommodation in tourism destinations is so important that it has been considered in the definition of tourist, as tourist is someone who accommodates at least one night in a place outside his/her usual environment. The importance of this issue will be doubled when we know that successful tourism destinations are those that have the ability to welcome more tourists with longer overnight stay. The existing state of hospitality in Iran and its impact on tourism development were evaluated in the present study using the research method of descriptive-survey. The results show that hospitality industry requires some major factors for growth and prosperity. Facilities required for investment in this sector and the presence of passengers and customers are two major factors. Without tourists, there is no point in continuation of hospitality industry and generally tourism industry. After the Islamic Revolution, hospitality industry was forgotten and didn't consider as an essential industry in the economic structure of the country, but it was regarded as a luxury good. Little attention to tourism sector caused the hospitality industry to face recession. Despite the increase in the total number of accommodation facilities in the country, this increase was insufficient and there were many problems and shortcomings in the management of hotels, especially the high-grade ones. Additionally, the lack of adequate support of relevant organizations put this industry in an impasse. On the other hand, although there are thousands of beds and tourism resorts in the country, only half of the capacity of these hotels and residences is occupied by passengers at the peak time of journeys. This due to the price of hotels which is unaffordable to many people and middle class or poor people prefer to spendless money for accommodation. Hence, domestic tourists are less interested in staying in hotels, motels, suites, and so on, while the number of foreign tourists entering the country has faced with a negative growth over the past few years. Sima Hemmati. Evaluation of the impact of hospitality on tourism development with emphasis on Iran. Life SciЈ 2012:9(3):2660-2666.) (ISSN: 1097-8135).