Originally Posted by
Paint Horse
I can think of a couple of reasons "hardly no one on FT has been in Teheran".
I know at least a couple dozen FTers have been to THR. And the number of Americans overall who have flown to THR seems to have been rising, if counting -- ironically in a way -- upon Pakistani officials' representations.
I expect Iran and Cuba are a sort of hot spot for tourism, and definitely not in a North Korean way.
From my family and friends who have visited Iran, they enjoyed their trips. I'm thinking of doing a ski trip to Iran at some point, which will add to the number of countries in which I've hit the ski slopes.
I see charter tour packages being sold to Iran and Cuba in widely circulated package tour guide brochures by private European operators. I don't see that happening for North Korea. Each and every year for the better part of the past several years, I've seen ski package tours to Iran being offered in European charter tour package brochures. Some must be buying them and some must be making money selling them if they keep advertising them like they do.
And the word is that alcohol and other drugs are not absent from the Iranian slopes, so that paints some kind of apres-ski picture (unlawful as I assume such consumption in the main to be there).
I'm curious to see how long it will be until Marriott or a Marriott-affiliated third party signs up for a hotel on the ground in THR.