Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 10
By Khalid Kazimov – Trend:
Some 3.747 million Iranians tourists have departed the country for various destinations across the world over the first five mounts of the current fiscal year (starting March 20).
Abdolreza Mohajernejad, an Iranian tourism official, has said that the figure has increased by 20.9 percent year on year as about 2.875 million Iranians visited abroad in the same period of last year, ISNA news agency reported.
The official added that the figure for the last fiscal year surpassed nine million tourists.
Turkey, Iraq, the UAE, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Germany and Saudi Arabia were among the most popular destinations by Iranian tourists in the mentioned period.
The official suggested that high expenses of domestic tourism have encouraged Iranian travelers to spend their vacations outside the country.
He further called on Iranian officials to make efforts aimed at cutting the expenses of traveling in the country.
This is while Iran’s international tourism arrivals in 2016 dropped by 5.6 percent compared to 2015.
According to UNWTO (World Tourism Organization) tourism highlights 2017 edition, 4.942 million tourists visited Iran in 2016. The figure for 2015 stood at 5.237 million.