Air Transport Liberalization and Domestic Tourism Development A Comparative Study, Iran and India

Air transport is one of the main Businesses in the tourism industry. Manifestation of free economy theories paved the way for immersion of liberalization in air transport industry. Domestic air transport liberalization, since late 1970’s has considerably contributed the development of air transport industry through elimination of restrictions. Development of air transport industry lead to the development of air transport market which resulted in the considerable growth of Traffics. Therefore, these growths in the development of air transport industry caused the expansion of tourism industry as well. The present research, by using Comparative-Historical Method, investigates the impact of air transport liberalization on tourism industry development. Hence, the Islamic Republic of Iran is compared with India in terms of domestic air transportation and tourism. On the other hand, lack of liberalization in domestic air transport in Iran has prevented some significant growth in domestic traffics and along with other factors has impeded the development of tourism industry.