TEHRAN – A new gallery in Tehran is taking visitors on a journey through the capital’s political, social, cultural and artistic history while using digital technology and artificial intelligence to offer a glimpse of how tourism in the city could evolve in the future.
The “Stories of Tehran” gallery opened at the Kushk-e Bagh-e Honar cultural complex in the Abbasabad Cultural and Tourism Zone on Sunday, coinciding with World Tourism Day and Tehran Week. The exhibition runs from September 27 to October 8 under this year’s World Tourism Day theme, “Digital Agenda and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Redesign Tourism.”
The gallery brings together historical maps, illustrated timelines, infographics, photographs and interactive features, to name a few, to present different chapters of Tehran’s history, from its early development and eventual selection as Iran’s capital to its political and social transformations in the modern era.
Among the subjects presented are some of the city’s earliest known developments, its old plane trees, food culture, historic buildings and major political and cultural events. A section also documents damage inflicted on historic buildings and cultural spaces during the recent war with the US and the Israeli regime.
Seyyed Mohammad-Hossein Hejazi, managing director of the Abbasabad Cultural and Tourism Zone, said the event was designed to introduce Tehran’s tourism attractions and present the city through its past and future.
“Unfortunately, Tehran has mostly been viewed as a transit city in recent years rather than a final destination for tourists,” he told reporters.
Hejazi said the exhibition was part of broader efforts to introduce the capital’s attractions from different perspectives and strengthen its position as a tourism destination.
Digitalization is also being incorporated into plans for tourism services in the Abbasabad zone. Hejazi said Tehran Municipality’s “Shahrzad” application had been linked to a planned tourism card for the Abbasabad area.
The card, which has not yet been launched, is modeled partly on systems such as the Istanbulkart and Dubai Pass, he said. It is expected to eventually provide access to a range of services, including public transportation, museums, recreational facilities and tourism and leisure attractions.
Hejazi said the Abbasabad area had been selected as a pilot site for the initiative and that a trial could potentially begin in the coming months.
The “Stories of Tehran” concept itself dates back to the COVID-19 pandemic, when international tourism came to a halt. According to Alireza Moghaddam-Nia, director of tourism at the Abbasabad zone, the area at the time sought to provide virtual journeys through Tehran by drawing on the knowledge and experiences of tour guides, tourism businesses and other industry stakeholders.
The exhibition’s central timeline stretches across the gallery walls and traces major events in Tehran from the Safavid and Qajar periods to contemporary history. Historical maps of the old city are also eye-catching.
Visitors can hear stories about the city and interact with replicas and toys associated with old Tehran. The exhibition also incorporates elements of the city’s natural heritage, including its long-lived trees, rather than focusing solely on monuments and historical events.
One of the main features is the use of artificial intelligence and digital technology to create interactive tourism experiences. Visitors can take virtual tours of countless locations across Tehran and use a QR-code-based service to create photographs of themselves against images of the city from different periods.
The organizers say the idea is to combine digital tools with physical and immersive experiences rather than allow technology to replace direct engagement with destinations.
“The technology can facilitate tourism services and the travel experience, but it should not replace the tourist’s real experience,” Sara Mirzaei, deputy head of tourism and recreation at the Abbasabad Cultural and Tourism Zone, said.
She cited emerging tools such as smart glasses capable of translation and content generation as examples of technologies that could make travel easier.
The exhibition also looks at the history of the 560-hectare Abbasabad area, which today contains a number of Tehran’s major cultural, tourism and recreational facilities, including the Tabiat Bridge, Ab-o-Atash Park, Mina Dome, Bagh-e Honar, Book Garden and the Museum of the Islamic Revolution and Sacred Defense.
According to Mirzaei, the transformation of the area into a cultural and tourism zone followed years of planning and efforts to determine an appropriate future for the site. The exhibition traces that history and highlights how the area eventually developed into one of Tehran’s major cultural and recreational destinations.
The organizers say the gallery is partly intended to challenge the perception of Tehran as merely a transit point for tourists.
The exhibition also contains a distinctive element looking far beyond the present: a mailbox for letters addressed to Tehran’s mayor in the year 1450 in the Iranian calendar, equivalent to 2071–72.
Visitors are invited to write down their hopes, expectations and ideas for the future of Tehran and place them in the mailbox. The box will be sealed after the exhibition and preserved for opening in 1450.
Mirzaei described the idea as a paradox of the digital age. At a time when physical correspondence has largely given way to email and messaging applications, visitors are being invited to put their thoughts on paper and entrust them to the future.
The juxtaposition is deliberate: an exhibition centered on artificial intelligence and digital tourism has created space for one of the oldest forms of communication, a handwritten letter.
The broader program accompanying the exhibition includes educational panels, specialist workshops and film screenings focusing on smart tourism, tourism platforms, historical urban landscapes, safe travel and new technologies. Other programs comprise a screening of a documentary about the Omidvar brothers, the famed Iranian globetrotters, a workshop on rediscovering Iran and sessions on the role of emerging tourism technologies in developing smart urban economies.
The Abbasabad Cultural and Tourism Zone, described by its organizers as a major green and recreational hub in the capital, is also seeking to strengthen its international tourism profile.
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