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Iranwire – In an attempt to attract visitors from across the globe and boost its sanctions-hit economy, the Iranian government has agreed to abolish visa requirements for passport holders from 32 countries.
“The government intends to open the country’s doors to the world,” the minister of tourism, Ezzatollah Zarghami, told reporters after a cabinet meeting on December 13.
“The Islamic Republic has shown its readiness to open doors to people worldwide and provide more facilities for them so that they can easily visit our country and benefit from its advantages,” he also said.
According to the minister, the development of tourism will help “foil negative advertisements, rumors and fear-mongering about Iran.”
Saudi Arabia and many other Middle Eastern countries, India, Japan, Brazil, Venezuela, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, Belarus, Uzbekistan and Zimbabwe are reportedly included in the visa-waiver program.
The government also agreed to abolish visa requirements for tourist groups from Russia.
According to the Ministry of Tourism, the number of foreign visitors in Iran reached 4.4 million during the first eight months of the current Iranian year, which ends in March 2024, representing a 50-percent increase compared to the same period last year.
The ministry expects six million foreign tourists to visit the country by the end of the year.
There were high hopes for a lucrative boost to tourism after the Islamic Republic struck the 2015 nuclear deal with major powers, but those hopes were dashed three years later when the United States withdrew from the agreement and started reimposing crippling sanctions on Iran.
The COVID pandemic and last year’s nationwide protests, which were accompanied by a bloody state crackdown on dissent, have also hit Iran’s tourism industry hard.
The Islamic Republic has also incarcerated Westerners and dual nationals on spurious charges, prompting multiple countries to advise their citizens against all travel there, citing the risk of “arbitrary detention.”
