Addressing the International Tourism and Handicrafts Exhibition, Mounesan said the national tourism industry badly hit by the outbreak of the virus and the industry suffered losses of around 22,000 tomans. He expressed hope by the production of the domestic COVID-19 vaccine, tourism in the country once again would pick up.

He went on to say that by the boom in tourism, he hopes all types of tourism like ecotourism and agro tourism would boom. He noted several incidents and events had their negative impacts on tourism but they failed to ground this industry and only slowed down its pace of progress.

Mounesan noted that despite all these mishaps, the arrival of foreign tourists set a record for the country.

He added that some 23,000b tomans of credit have been earmarked during the 12th government for tourism in the country and some projects are to be inaugurated soon.

He noted that 408 hotels and hotel apartments with 417,000 beds have been built and launched during the current government while the country is challenging with the sanctions.

Meanwhile, Venezuela’s Minister of Tourism and Foreign Trade Ali Padron who is in Tehran to attend the exhibition highlighted friendly ties between Tehran and Caracas, saying that Venezuelans see Iran as their home.

Padron met with Iran’s Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts to sign a memorandum of understanding on a 2020-2024 tourism plan and will visit a number of people involved in the Iranian tourism industry.

He will take trips to Kerman and Esfahan provinces to see tourist sites.

He will also tour Golestan Palace, Milad Tower, and the National Museum in Tehran.

The tourism Minister of Venezuela is the special guest of the exhibition.

Due to the outbreak of the coronavirus disease, the event is taking place with observing health protocols.

Some 160 tourism companies are present in the exhibition.

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The ICHHTO has recently been changed into a ministry, and Mounesan was picked as President Rouhani’s candidate to serve as the minister.

“In 2017, the number of foreign tourists visiting Iran stood at 4.7 million. In 2018, the number reached 7.7 million, and we witnessed a boom in the first four months of the current year compared to the same period in previous years,” he added.

“Around March 2018, we received a governmental notice warning about the behavior of the US administration and its withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, so we started to plan accordingly so that the measures would not affect the number of tourists visiting our country,” Mounesan added.

He said one of these plans was to define new target markets.

“For instance, we implemented a one-way visa waiver with Oman. Recently, we did the same with China. From Oman alone, we received 4,700 tourists. The number has reached 12,400 tourists since the past three months,” he added.

“We have made plans and set our sight on regional markets. As of now, tourists visit Iran for receiving treatment, besides doing pilgrimages. This has brought in a lot of revenues for the country, even more so than revenues brought in by European tourists,” he said.

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The head of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, Ali Asghar Mounesan said Sat. that with government support handicrafts’ annual sales could increase to $2 billion in the near future.

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