Iraqi tourists accounted for the highest number of foreigners who visited Iran during the seven months to Oct. 22, Ali Asghar Mounesan, the head of Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicraft and Tourism Organization, said.
A total of 1,926,310 Iraqis visited Iran in the seven-month period, followed by 989,836 Azerbaijani, 557,579 Afghans, 483,302 Turks and 159,728 Pakistanis, the Persian economic daily Donya-e-Eqtesad reported.
This is while the number of tourists from Iraq stood at 1,356,185 in the last Iranian year (March 2017-18) and 1,398,201 in the year before (March 2016-17).
A total of 959,653 and 981,200 tourists from Azerbaijan visited Iran over the last year and the year before, respectively.
The number of Afghan tourists who visited Iran stood at 860,079 in 2017-18 and 683,241 in 2016-17.
Iran hosted 573,849 tourists from Turkey last year and 444,200 in the year before (March 2016-17).
A total of 273,273 tourists from Pakistan visited Iran last year and 242,087 travelled to Iran in March 2016-17.
The above figures indicate that the number of tourists from Iraq and Azerbaijan has seen a significant growth over the past couple of years.
Although there is no data for the number of tourists from Europe and the United States, travel agents say fewer European and American tourists have been visiting Iran over the seven-month period compared to last year.
Growth in Overall Inbound Tourism Thanks to Lower Costs
A total of 4,739,413 foreigners travelled to Iran during the seven months to Oct. 22, indicating a 56% growth compared with the same period of last year.
Mounesan said the lower costs of Iran travel packages were a key factor in making the country more attractive for foreigners.
The sharp decline in the value of national currency in recent months seems to be an opportunity for fostering the promising tourism industry.
In recent months, Iranian authorities have redoubled efforts to boost the tourism sector to increase foreign currency revenues and create jobs under the current tough economic conditions.
A sharp declining national currency has meant that travelling to and shopping in Iran is now significantly cheaper for foreign nationals.
Focus on Iraq
Iran is increasingly focusing on citizens from neighboring Iraq to boost its tourism sector.
Iraqi citizens have traditionally constituted a major share of total inbound tourists to Iran, but their main purpose of travel to the Islamic Republic has mostly been to visit religious and holy sites.
However, Iranian authorities have been increasingly focusing on promoting new sectors for Iraqi travelers in recent months.
In November 2017, the idea of creating an "Iraq Desk" at the Iran Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization was floated. It was slated that the state and private sectors would work together to expand the role of Iraqi tourists in the inbound market.
Experts believe that the first step to attract more Iraqi tourists must be to recognize why they visit the country and devise plans to organize and highlight the same.
According to Mohammad Ebrahim Larijani, the head of Tourism Marketing and Publicity at ICCHTO, the next step should be to diversify services and goods offered to Iraqi tourists so that Iran can attract more visitors from the neighboring nation that wish to enjoy the Islamic Republic's recreational and medical facilities in addition to its religious attractions.
Health and medical tourism is one of Iran's emerging sectors, which has proven to be more attractive to Iraqi visitors and is also eyed for development.
According to Larijani, ICCHTO is paying more attention to recreational tourism as an area that could boost the growth of inbound Iraqi tourists to Iran.
"For recreation and entertainment, [northern] provinces like Mazandaran and Gilan can play a vital role in acting as attractive destinations," the official said, adding that many Iraqi tourists are willing to visit Mazandaran after they have visited the holy city of Mashhad for religious purposes.
As he pointed out, another positive point of touting the northern provinces as attractive destinations will mean that such tourists will stay in Iran for longer than two weeks and sometimes up to a month. He added that this is already happening, but unfortunately without any organization or planning.
"The point is that this will be economically viable because many Iraqis currently enter Iran without a tour and spontaneously follow both pilgrimage and recreational paths, so local tour agencies remain bereft of the potential profits," the official said.
He dismissed the idea that Iraqis do not follow a predefined itinerary, noting that he has studied the inbound Iraqi market.
Larijani conceded that authorities and private sector players will probably be unable to incentivize Iraqi citizens living in border regions with Iran through tours, but said citizens residing in other provinces that are far from the border will have enough reason to respond to tour offers.
"On the other hand, we may not be able to define tours in terms of religious visits because Iraq has many direct flights scheduled to Iran's religious destinations like Mashhad and its citizens are familiar with the destinations," he said, adding that medical and recreational tourism have the potential to prove fruitful.
