Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 19
By Fatih Karimov
Iran and Russia signed an agreement to initiate flights between Iran's Sari city and Russia's Astarakhan.
According to IRNA, the flight will be launched in May, 2015.
The report, published Feb.19 adds that during last year some 2000 Russians traveled Sari and it's expected the figure would rise by making the Sari-Astarakhan direct flight.
The agreement was signed while Iran's ambassador to Russia wrote on his Facebook page Feb.19 that Moskow and Tehran discussed tourism issue in Russia.
Iranian ambassador to Russia held a meeting with Maya Lomidze, president of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) to discuss the mutual tourism opportunities.
Mehdi Sanaei wrote on his Facebook page Feb.19 that during the meeting with Lomidze, the ways of boosting tourism cooperation were evaluated.
Sanaei says that five Russian big tour companies would meet Iran in near future.
Iran-Russia trade currently totals $1.5 billion a year, but two countries have repeatedly announced that the figure would increase ten fold in near future and the amount can increase to €70 billion as well.
Iran says it earned $1.3 billion revenues last year from tourism sector, mostly from medical tourism and pilgrims.