Dutch backpacker dares politics to invest in Iran

Sebastian Straten is going against the flow of investing. As some Western corporations pack up projects in Iran due to pressure of sanctions, the entrepreneurial Dutchman is preparing for the day when tourists gather to the Islamic state.

His guest house business -- a joint venture with an Iranian partner which was dreamed up during a backpacking holiday three years ago -- may be an unlikely seed for a fortune.

But it acts to highlight the great opportunities companies in the West are passing up to Asian rivals happy to do business with a country that outgoing U.S. President George W. Bush included in his world view of an "axis of evil."

Straten is developing a small-scale hotels venture in the central city of Yazd, known for its labyrinth of lanes between old mud brick buildings and 'wind catcher' towers designed to cool houses in the heat.

He plans to spread out to the cities of Isfahan, Shiraz and Qazvin, building more hotels on the Silk Road, an ancient trade route that linked China with the Middle East and Europe.

What one can do in Iran

Famous tourist sights in Iran include 2,500-year-old ruins at Persepolis near Shiraz and 16th-century Islamic architectural gems in Isfahan. Visitors to the Middle Eastern country also can enjoy skiing, diving and nature.

Straten himself first came to the Islamic Republic as a tourist in 2005. He knows the risks but he is confident his business will eventually pay off.

"Maybe I'm crazy," said Straten, who quit as product manager at a privately owned pharmaceutical firm to go backpacking, and is now obsessed by the potential of the two small hotels he and his Iranian partner Ali Montazer Ghaem currently own.

"I wouldn't do this if I did not have a very different thinking from other people," the 35-year-old said. "Everything I have, everything I am, everything I believe in, is in this country. It is 100 percent commitment."