Kandovan Named As One of World Tourism Villages
Kandovan Named As One of World Tourism Villages
KANDOVAN – Concurrent with announcing Kandovan as one of the world tourism villages, a ceremony was held in Kandovan village in East Azarbaijan of Iran in the presence of officials of cultural hertitage, tourism and handicrafts ministry as well as provincial officials.

Kandovan Named As One of World Tourism Villages

TEHRAN (Iran News) The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) announced its list of Best Tourism Villages 2023. The accolade recognizes villages that are leading in nurturing rural areas and preserving landscapes, cultural diversity, local values, and culinary traditions.

In this third edition 54 villages from all regions were selected from almost 260 applications. A further 20 villages have joined the Upgrade Programme, and all 74 villages are now part of the UNWTO Best Tourism Villages Network. The villages were named during the UNWTO General Assembly, taking place this week in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

Kandovan village in the town of Osku of East Azarbaijan was one of the winners of the awards in this event in Samarkand while people and officials in Kandovan village burst into joy in a ceremony for celebrating this historic award as Kandovan is Iran’s first ever villages winning this award. Iran had sent documents of eight villages to the UNWTO for the recognition and Kandovan achieved this success.

Kandovan

Addressing to the ceremony in Kandovan village, Director-General of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts in East Azarbaijan Mr. Ahmad Hamzehzadeh welcomed the guests in the event like deputy minister of cultural heritage, tourism and handicrafts Ms. Maryam Jalali and thanked all people who had a role in achieving such success and winning the world tourism village award. He also congratulated Iranians for this achievement and reiterated this will be a good step for social development in the area and now Kandovan village can play a great role in tourism of the province and the country. He added that so far some 60,000 foreign tourists and more than one million Iranians have visited Kandovan village.

Then Deputy Minister Ms. Jalali congratulated the participants and the nation for this achievement and praised the integration and coordination among all people involved in the success and hailed the people of the province for their hospitability. He said Kandovan is now the first Iranian village recognized by the UNWTO and expressed hope more villages are recognized by the UNWTO.

Kandovan is an ancient village in Sahand Rural District in the Central District of Osku County, East Azerbaijan Province, northwestern Iran. It is situated in the foothills of Mount Sahand, near the city of Osku with some 50,000 population.

The village exemplifies manmade cliff dwellings which are still inhabited. The troglodyte homes, excavated inside volcanic rocks.

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