Iran Tourism Ministry Homes In on 30 States to Attract Visitors

According to the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism, a total of 5,890,952 tourists visited Iran during the first seven months of the current Iranian year (March 21-Oct. 22) to register a 24% growth compared with the same period of last year.

Although rising tensions between Washington and Tehran are hitting visitor numbers, especially from Europe, the increasing number of religious and medical tourists is making up for the loss.

Iran has been ranked first worldwide in terms of price competitiveness in the World Economic Forum’s “The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2019” with a score of 6.7. Scores range from 1 to 7 where 1 means worst and 7 means best.

Iran hosted more than 7.29 million foreign tourists in 2018, about 50% more compared to the year before, according to the United Nations’ World Tourism Organizations.

The country had a 2.1% share from global tourist arrivals and more than 22% in South Asia last year. A total of more than 4.86 foreign tourists visited Iran in 2017, 1.5% less compared to the year before.

An earlier report by World Travel & Tourism Council indicates that Iraq was the main source of tourism for Iran last year as Iraqis constituted 24% of all inbound visitors. Other major sources were Azerbaijan (17%), Turkey (8%), Pakistan (4%) and Bahrain (2%). The remaining 46% came from other countries.

About 7.8 million tourists traveled to Iran in the last Iranian year that ended March 20 to register a 52.5% growth compared with preceding year.