After the congress of the World Federation of Tour Guide Associations in Tehran, there is still the post-congress program. And it has it all: six days full of excursions, sightseeing, receptions and gifts! After the closing ceremony on February 1, 2017, we fly south from Tehran to Shiraz on a specially chartered and branded plane. In addition to advertising for our congress, we also find the list of participants, including their countries of origin, in the in-flight magazine.
In Shiraz, we are welcomed with flowers and music, visit the tomb of Hafez and a mosque complex and have dinner with the mayor. The next day we visit Persepolis, the large temple complex, which is actually reasonably well developed for tourism. We then fly on to Yazd, where we visit a Zoroastrian fire temple and the Dolat Abat government garden. When we visit the old citadel of Meybod the next day, we are also photographed as peace ambassadors.
We then take the bus to one of the most touristy cities in the country: Isfahan. The traffic is exhausting and the air pollution stings the nose, but otherwise the city is exceptionally clean and tidy. The sights are well developed and are also besieged by locals who keep asking us if we like it in their country. During our free time on Imam Ali Square, we are presented with a very Western picture: girls pose for selfies in front of the fountain in tight jeans and with their headscarves almost down, students perform a stand-up play, older ladies and gentlemen sit in the sun and watch the hustle and bustle.
The next morning we visit an Armenian Orthodox church and then board the chartered train to Kashan. It feels like this route was built for us… :-) We travel through a desert landscape in which oases appear from time to time. This is an opportunity to catch up with all the participants. I walk through the wagons and talk to many colleagues from all over the world. We all agree that our Iranian colleagues from #IFTGA have made a great effort and offered us a great program despite some minor slip-ups. We will definitely return to our countries as ambassadors of peace.
In Kashan itself, we don’t have much time to visit the palaces because the mayor wants to invite us to dinner. With another gift in our luggage, we drive to the airport in Tehran, where I charm my way through with a few words of Farsi and all my luggage without having to pay extra.
I am already looking forward to the next meeting in Georgia in January 2019. Please come along and find out more on the website of the world association: www.wftga.org.
