In case a traveler has not injected both doses of the vaccine, he or she will be tested and quarantined, if necessary, IRNA quoted Gooya as saying on Saturday.

“The cold season is approaching. Considering that schools and universities are reopened, infection cases will increase as the sixth wave of the disease is near, while public vaccination has not been completed,” he explained.

The Ministry of Health has announced that the Delta virus has been found everywhere in the country, and given that the virus is very highly contagious, it can increase the rate of hospitalizations and transmission.

Currently, 22 cities are in the high-risk red zones (the highest category on Iran’s coronavirus risk scale), and 128 cities are in the orange zones, 215 cities are in the yellow zones, and 83 cities are in the blue zones.

That is while, deputy tourism minister Ali-Asghar Shalbafian said on Sunday that the country has reopened its borders to foreign tourists as of October 23 based on the new conditions prevailing in the country after crossing the fifth wave of the pandemic, increasing vaccinations, and at the request of the tourism ministry.

Over 750,000 passengers screened for coronavirus at borders

A total of 750,164 passengers have so far been screened for coronavirus by thermal tests at the country’s official borders since March 10, Mehdi Valipour, head of Relief and Rescue Organization affiliated to the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS), said on Monday.

During the aforesaid period, IRCS forces have conducted 91,058 PCR tests and 117,121 rapid tests, he added, IRNA reported.

He went on to say that some 213 individuals, who tested positive, have so far been temporarily quarantined, under a plan to rapidly identify suspected cases of coronavirus and prevent the spread of the disease.

A total of 471 members of the IRCS cooperate for carrying out the plan in 16 provinces across the country, Valipour concluded.

With the cooperation of ministries of health and transport, a plan is being implemented with the goal of rapidly identifying and testing incoming passengers and keeping them in quarantine facilities, if necessary.

Twenty-eight border checkpoints have been selected, including 18 land borders, nine air borders, and three sea borders, all incoming passengers will be tested and referred to the quarantine facilities in case of necessity.

Around 8,000 individuals enter the country via borders on a daily basis.

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The Iranian embassy stressed that if citizens urgently need an emergency trip to Afghanistan, they can travel to Kabul only for a limited time and with the assurance of a return flight, with prior coordination with the embassy.

The statement noted that citizens of the Islamic Republic of Iran who live and work in the cities and regions of Afghanistan, with the exception of Kabul, are advised to leave Afghanistan as soon as possible.

Clashes between the Afghan government and the Taliban have intensified in recent weeks as the United States started withdrawing its troops from the war-torn country after 20 years of occupation.

Iran, as a neighboring country, stepped in to de-escalate the tensions and help bring peace to Afghanistan by establishing contacts with both sides of the conflict. To this end, Iranian diplomats traveled to Kabul to meet Afghan leaders. They also hosted in Tehran meetings between the Taliban and the other Afghan stakeholders.

In late July, Mohammad Ebrahim Taherian, the special representative of the Iranian Foreign Ministry for Afghanistan, and his accompanying delegation met with Afghan Foreign Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar in Kabul, discussing the latest developments surrounding Afghanistan.

Taherian assured the Afghan foreign minister of Tehran’s support for the peace process in Afghanistan while maintaining the achievements the Afghans have made over the past two decades.

The special envoy also called for further cooperation between Kabul and Tehran in various areas, including border cooperation and coordination between different sectors.

According to the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Atmar said he appreciates the reasonable stances of Iran in supporting peace efforts, ending violence, putting an end to arbitrary killings and torture of civilians, and human rights violations in the territories captured by the Taliban.

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“Some 1,245,000 people visited cultural heritage museums and sites during this Noruz as the Sadabad Cultural-Historical Complex received the topmost number of visitors during Noruz,” Mohammadreza Kargar, the director of museums and historical properties at the tourism ministry, announced on Saturday.

The UNESCO-registered Golestan Palace and Niavaran Cultural-Historical Complex were named the second and the third respectively, the official noted, adding that Hafezieh, where illustrious Persian poet Hafez is laid to rest in Shiraz, was the fourth most-visited cultural site during the holiday.

Visits to Iranian museums fell by one-fifth during Noruz holidays in comparison to the same period two years ago, when the new coronavirus was not yet an issue, according to the official. “Visits to cultural heritage museums fell by one-fifth during the Noruz holidays of the current year (1400) in comparison to the same period in the year 1398.”

Cultural heritage museums were closed during the Noruz holiday last year (1399) due to strict social distancing measures, the official said.

Currently, 740 museums are active across Iran, of which 285 have been established since August 2013, when President Hassan Rouhani began his first administration, Kargar said in March. Back in 2018, he publicized that some three million historical objects were being kept at museums affiliated with the Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts, and Tourism Ministry.

Iran is home to one of the world’s oldest continuous major civilizations, embracing settlements dating back to 4000 BC. It also hosts some of the world’s oldest cultural monuments including bazaars, museums, mosques, bridges, bathhouses, madrasas, gardens, rich natural, rural landscapes as well as 24 UNESCO World Heritage sites.

The name of Iran, formerly known as Persia, mostly conjures up the first Persian Empire, ruled by the Achaemenids (ca. 550 – 330 BC) and sites such as Pasargadae and Persepolis. However, there are tens of prehistorical sites as the Burnt City in Sistan-Baluchestan, Tepe Sialk in Kashan, Susa, and Chogha Zanbil in the Khuzestan province, and Ecbatana in Hamedan which predate the Achaemenid period.

From a wider point of view, Iranian history can be divided into Pre-Islamic and Islamic eras. The Medes unified Iran as a nation and empire in 625 BC. The Islamic conquest of Persia (633–656) that put an end to the mighty Sassanid Empire (224–651) was a turning point in the history of the nation.

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In comments on the sidelines of a cabinet session on Wednesday, Ali Rabiee said the administration has managed to control the first wave of the outbreak of the coronavirus.

The number of admissions to and discharges from the hospitals in some cities has reached a balance and there are also unoccupied hospital beds, he noted, saying it reveals that the coronavirus spread has been kept under control, although a new wave might occur in future.

Rabiee said President Hassan Rouhani has imposed a ban on new travels and forbidden leaving cities, noting that new regulations in this regard will soon be ratified and publicized.

In an address to the cabinet session on Wednesday morning, Iran President, Hassan Rouhani unveiled plans for stricter limits on travel to prevent the spread of COVID-19, calling on people to stay home and refrain from making a new wave of travels in the Nowruz holidays.

The number of the novel coronavirus patients in Iran exceeded 24,800 on Tuesday, while nearly 9,000 positive cases have recovered from the viral disease.

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According To Iran News, International travel used to be a popular and prestigious holiday activity for Iranians, but the value of Iranian Rial has decreased rapidly in the past few years and judging by our sales statistics at trip.ir, many Iranians can’t afford airplane ticket and hotel reservation for international travels anymore. Apart from the heavy expenses and the problematic currency exchange rate, the government has been increasing the departure tax lately. These are the reasons why the rate of international travel for Iranians has decreased by 6.5% in the first 3 months of 1398, compared to the previous year.

Since international travel is not cost-beneficial for many Iranians anymore and is even frowned upon and criticized as a luxurious benefit that no normal family would be able to afford, the demand for domestic travel has increased. Nowadays, many Iran tourist attractions that used to be almost empty, are rife with new tourists.

The Challenges Iranians have for International Travels 

As was mentioned, international travel has become less popular among Iranians. Let’s review the causes, this time with more detail:

• High Price of Airplane Tickets: The overly expensive airplane tickets are perhaps the biggest obstacle for traveling abroad. The price of airline tickets has tripled or even quadrupled in a very short period, mostly due to the heavy sanctions. The sections have had a deep effect on all aspects of the economy, but their effect on the price of airplane tickets for international flights has been especially severed. because unlike domestic flights, their price is determined by international currency, not Rial. Airline companies have tried to minimize their loss by decreasing the number of flights and increasing the price of tickets, resulting in unaffordable prices, especially when the demand is high, like during the holidays.
• High Price of Hotel Reservation: Even if Iranians manage to find an affordable ticket to their desired destination, reserving a hotel room might cause problems since they have to be paid for with Euro or Dollar. When it comes to international travel, the distinction between “cheap hotels” and “expensive hotels” has become less clear for Iranians. Of course, some travel agencies have tried to make hotel rooms more affordable for customers by offering special price packages and special tours. but nowadays, most of people go abroad for work-related reasons – namely businessmen and representatives of big businesses – and they won’t need these kinds of aids. For others, considering how high the prices are, these financial aids might still not make the prices affordable.
• High Departure Tax: With the government’s new enactment in 1397, the departure tax increased considerably. According to this law, passengers have to pay 2,20,000 Rials as a departure tax. The passengers who exit Iran the second or third time, have to pay 3,30,000 and 4,400,000 Rials respectively. This departure tax has harmed the Iranians’ tendency towards international travel.

Challenges of Domestic Travel among Iranians 

While the popularity of domestic travel is on the rise, this form of travel also has its problems. Some of them are unique to domestic travel, while some of them overlap with the challenges of international travel. To name a few:

• High Price of Airplane Tickets: While the price of airplane tickets for domestic travel is lower than international travel, it is still expensive for many Iranians. For example, according to the prices listed on the “Trip. IR”, a one week trip to Kish in winter would cost between 1.5 to 2 million Tomans for two people, and that’s the price of plane tickets alone. Of course, that might not seem a lot, but we need to consider the fact that in times of economic hardship, luxuries such as traveling are among the first casualties. So even if we were to ignore international travel, the high price of airplane tickets is an issue that needs to be fixed.
• General Inflation: In the past few years, Iran has faced a serious inflation problem and there was a sudden price spike for all sorts of the commodity. This is why even when Iranians plan to travel within the country, they try to minimize their costs by not buying souvenirs, eating at cheaper restaurants and even camping outdoors, instead of renting hotel rooms.
• Obscurity of Iranian Tourist Destinations: Due to its rich history and four-season climate, Iran has the potential to be one of the most attractive tourist attractions in the world. There are architectural wonders in Iran comparable to the world-famous Gothic cathedrals of Europe, but there is not enough effort to present a tourist-friendly image of the country to the world and this is why these attractions don’t get the attention they deserve, even among Iranians themselves.

How “Trip. IR” Can Help the Growth of Domestic Tourism

Even though international and domestic travel both have their disadvantages, in the current circumstances, domestic traveling seems more cost-beneficial. However, some companies are trying to smooth out the process of traveling for Iranians in these difficult times and reduce the negative effects of the challenges mentioned above. “Trip” is one of such companies.

“Trip.ir” is an online travel agency that plans to make traveling as easy and stress-free as possible for Iranians. The website provides a list of options for buying airplane tickets and hotel reservations and the customer can choose the most desired option based on the prices. The trip also offers special tours with reasonable discounts and provides travel insurance, which covers the medical expenses of the customer’s voyage. Also, in case the customers lose their passport or any other important document, the travel insurance will cover their loss.

Apart from the challenges mentioned, one of the reasons for people’s reluctance to travel is the lack of information and unfamiliarity with the sources. Many people wrongly think that the process of buying an airplane ticket and reserving a hotel is complicated and time-consuming, so they don’t bother at all, even though they might be interested in the idea of traveling.

Thanks to websites like “Trip.ir”, all the information a customer might need to put their mind at ease is laid out before them, even down to the preferred hour of departure. Thanks to these online features and the transparency they provide, customers can reduce their engagement with the more rudimentary aspects of traveling to a minimum.

In the future, if the economic situation improves and the government manages to present a more appealing image of Iranian tourist destinations and cultural sites, we are going to witness a rise in Iranian tourism industry and websites like “Trip.ir” are more than eager to facilitate this process.

For more information you can check out the Trip.ir website as well:

www.trip.ir

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