Official: Foreign arrivals in Iran increased 40% in seven months
Iran’s Deputy Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts announced a significant 40 percent increase in foreign tourist arrivals to Iran during the first seven months of the current Iranian year (started on March 21, 2023) compared to the same period last year.
Speaking at an event in Shiraz, Ali Asghar Shalbafian emphasized the need to promote the country’s tourism potential and focus on attracting visitors from neighboring countries.
Shalbafian expressed optimism about the government’s plans to facilitate the travel of foreign tourists by car, referring to successful outcomes with Iraq and Turkey.
Additionally, arrangements are in progress to extend this to Armenia in the near future, allowing tourists from these countries to travel to Iran with their personal vehicles.
The deputy minister also talked about the extensive tourism and accommodation projects underway across the country, with over 2,500 projects totaling an investment of more than $7.4 billion.
Fars Province has 187 projects, including the construction of three five-star hotels and five four-star hotels, which are set to open in the near future.
One of the investment plans is to encourage having multiple usages for tourism areas, Shalbafian noted.
He stressed the importance of coordination with cultural heritage, tourism, and handicraft authorities at the provincial level.
Speaking about the Iranian diaspora’s potential, Shalbafian outlined plans to identify Iranians abroad from each province and use their capacities for investment.
He added that provinces of Bushehr, Fars, East Azarbaijan, Isfahan, Khorasan Razavi, and Mazandaran have so far effectively used the investment potential of Iranians abroad in the tourism sector.
In the past two years, the country attracted $291 million in foreign investments in tourism.
Iranians living abroad contributed to some of these projects, demonstrating a tenfold growth compared to 2012.
He emphasized the need to strengthen this trend and get the most out of the interest of Iranians abroad for investment in the tourism sector.