Iran tourism: 26 percent rise

Deputy Head of the ICHTO for Tourism Affairs Manouchehr Jahanian said Iran’s tourism sector witnessed a 26-percent rise in the number of foreign tourists in comparison with the corresponding period last year.

Iran has attracted over 3.93 million foreign tourists in the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 21, 2013), an official in Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHTO) said on Sunday.

Early in April, Jahanian said, “More than 4.5 foreign tourists have entered Iran in last year creating jobs for over 2.5 million people either directly or indirectly by spending more than $9bln in the country.”

He noted that most of the foreign tourists came from Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Iraq, Turkey, India and Pakistan.

The official pointed to the diversified climate and the numerous tourist and historical attractions as advantages of Iran’s tourism sector.

A US newspaper wrote in November that Iran’s tourism industry has flourished and the number of foreign tourists visiting Iran has increased in recent years despite the US-led sanctions targeting the country’s economy.

“The demand by foreign tourists to visit Iran has gone up,” The Washington Post said in an article titled “Tourism a Bright Spot for Iran” by Jason Rezaian.

Hence, international travelers sensing a good deal are venturing to a country that they have not traveled to before, the daily said.

Although Iran’s travel industry still has not reached what many Iranians think could be its true potential, the trend in recent years has been one of growth exceeding global averages.

From 2004 to 2010, the annual increase in tourists visiting foreign countries was 3.2 percent worldwide, according to the UN World Tourism Organization. Iran’s figures over the same period show tourism in Iran grew at a much faster clip (12.7 percent).