Private-sector tourism investment in West Azarbaijan tops $114m
Iran’s West Azarbaijan Province is rolling out more than 50 private-sector tourism projects worth over 200 trillion rials (about $114mn) across the northwestern Iranian province, a senior cultural heritage official said on Monday in Urmia.
The investment drive underscores the province's growing appeal as a tourism destination and highlights efforts to channel private capital into hospitality infrastructure and heritage-based development, IRNA reported.
“Such a volume of projects reflects West Azarbaijan’s substantial capacity for tourism expansion and investment attraction,” said Morteza Safari, director-general of the province’s Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Department.
Safari said authorities had launched studies on the Khan Takhti-Sirv-Silvana-Oshnavieh tourism corridor to map its historical and natural assets and prepare the ground for future investment. The initiative aims to turn the route into a new tourism hub in the mountainous border province.
He also pointed to progress on the Shams project in Khoy, which began in 2018. After receiving only 140 billion rials ($80,000) during its first seven years, funding accelerated in recent years. The project secured 300 billion rials ($171,000) in 2024 and a further 320 billion rials ($183,000) last year, lifting physical completion to 54%.
An additional 300 billion rials ($171,000) would help speed up construction and expand work shifts, Safari said.
The province is also pressing ahead with a series of museum and heritage projects, including the expansion of the Urmia Archaeological Museum, the Chaldoran War Site Museum and new galleries at the Shams Tabrizi memorial complex in Khoy.
West Azarbaijan’s museums currently house 34,700 artefacts, including 16,000 historical and cultural objects. Around 14,000 of those items have been registered in the national heritage database.
Museum attendance reached 160,000 visitors last year, marking a 33% increase from a year earlier despite closures and operational restrictions, according to provincial data.