The number of domestic and foreign tourists to the capital has experienced a decline of over 50% during the first half of the current Iranian year (started March 21), said a top official at the provincial office of Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization.
According to Delavar Bozorgnia, head of Tehran's ICHHTO office, 302,216 foreign travelers have arrived in Tehran since the beginning of the current year down from 626,195 tourists during the same period last year.
"From the domestic market, the province has received 211,368 tourists while it was host to 514,899 visitors last year in the same period," he was quoted as saying by ILNA.
The figures show a 51.73% decrease in inbound tourists and a drop of 58.95% in domestic travelers.
The occupancy rate at Tehran's lodging spaces, which include hotels, apartment hotels, guesthouses and other official places, has also seen a decline from 51.6% in the first half of last year to 49.4% in the equivalent period of the current year, the official added.
Bozorgnia stressed that the downward trend is "a serious warning signal for the capital that cannot be simply brushed off."
Statistics of the significant drop come at a time when tourism authorities tell of a 45% increase in inbound travel across the country thanks to the depreciation of the rial currency which has made travel much more affordable for foreigners.
Data from the Immigration and Passport Police has revealed that the main contributors to the tourism growth were Iraq, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan and Turkey.
However, Tehran has apparently remained deprived of the new populations that choose to travel to Iran.
