Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18
By Khalid Kazimov – Trend:
A senior Iranian official has said that the Tehran-Istanbul train will resume operating over the current year.
Deputy of Islamic Republic of Iran Railways Mir-Hassan Mousavi has said that two Iranian and Turkish trains will resume carrying passengers between the two cities of Tehran and Istanbul, IRNA news agency reported.
In the meantime, the sides have decided to launch trains between the Iranian city of Tabriz and Turkish city of Van.
The Turkish Hotel Association earlier said that some 2.5 million Iranian tourists visited Turkey in 2017, indicating a surge of 50.2 percent compared to 2016.
In the meantime, the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TURSAB) has said that about 688,502 Turkish tourists visited Iran over the last three years.
According to the association, some 163,500 Turkish tourists visited Iran in 2015, with 243,559 travelers in 2016 and 281,443 travelers in 2017.
Over the last 15 years, the smallest number of Turkish tourists (126,126) who visited Iran was recorded in 2007, while the biggest number (301,581 people) - in 2010.
Turkish sources in the meantime reported that Turkey’s tourism sector made a good start to 2018, with nearly 1.5 million foreigners visiting the country in the first month of the year.
Data from the Culture and Tourism Ministry released on Feb. 28 showed that the number of foreign arrivals saw a 39 percent year-on-year increase in January.
Iran became the top tourist market for Turkey in January, with 154,296 people from Iran visiting Turkey in the month. Iranians, therefore, took a nearly 11 percent of share in total foreign arrivals in the mentioned period.
Georgia and Bulgaria followed Iran with 150,849 arrivals and 119,296 arrivals, respectively. Germany followed with 86,875 arrivals. The number of German arrivals to Turkey saw a 10.3 percent year-on-year increase in January and Germans took a 5.94 percent share in overall arrivals.
Some 68,344 Russians visited Turkey in January with a 70.3 percent year-on-year increase, making Russia the fifth top tourism market for Turkey with a 4.68 percent share in total arrivals.