Foreign Tourist Arrivals Up 16%

Over 823,600 tourists have arrived in Iran in the first three months of the current Iranian year (started on March 21) which shows 16% of growth in the number of those foreign tourists who choose Iran as their destination, an Iranian tourism official announced on Tuesday. Deputy Head of Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization Hamed Dehghanan said that the figure shows a 16% increase in comparison with the same period the previous year. The landscape of Iran is diverse and beautiful, providing a range of activities from hiking and skiing in the Alborz Mountains, to beach holidays by the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea all in a single season. Iran's '20-Year Vision' document projects investment of over $32 billion in the country's tourism sector. The document also predicts that Iran will account for two percent of international tourists by 2025.