The number of trips to foreign destinations is expected to see a major decline in Norouz (the Iranian New Year holiday coinciding with March 21-April 2) due to forex rate fluctuations and a hike in airfares, a senior official at the Travel Agents Guild Association said.
Hormatollah Rafiei, the head of the association, added that the unsystematic growth in prices will discourage travelers from choosing foreign cities as their destination and the market is expected to decline by 50%, ISNA reported.
"Charterers have been warned to expect a financial loss during Norouz," he said.
He explained that although room prices have not increased in foreign countries, the costs will be higher for Iranians due to the drop in the value of rial against foreign currencies.
Besides, airlines have already started increasing their prices for certain routes.
"Tehran-Kuala Lumpur flights that formerly cost 20 million rials ($420) are now sold to travel agencies at 30 million rials ($640) for Norouz flights," the official said, adding that other routes also face the same fate.
And this is the price offered to travel agents and will normally increase before the trip is sold to customers.
Tour operators were satisfied with the sale of outbound tours during the Tehran International Tourism Exhibition held in late January, but the official said it will not make up for the anticipated decrease.
"The sales were not big enough to defy this prediction," he said.
Ali Asghar Mounesan, the head of Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, has also predicted that domestic travel will see a substantial increase in Norouz and therefore stricter supervision will be conducted to prevent a price hike.
