Publish Date: 30 August 2014 - 08:30

Iranian Vice-President and Head of the Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHHTO) Massoud Soltanifar expressed pleasure that more foreign tourists have been showing interest in traveling to Iran in recent months.


"The number of foreign tourists visiting Iran in the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-Auguat 22) showed 200 percent growth in comparison with last year's corresponding period," Soltanifar said in a meeting with investors of tourism sector on Friday.

He noted that 90 percent of the foreign tourists come to visit Iran with the purpose of natural, historical and religious tourism, adding, "Only 10 percent of foreign tourists come to Iran to attend conferences."

Soltanifar noted that Iran has over one million historical and natural sites that only 31,100 or nearly three percent of them have been registered.

Earlier this week, Soltanifar announced that over 4.8 million foreign tourists visited Iran in the last Iranian year (ended March 20, 2014) and brought around $5.5bln of revenues to the country despite all sanctions and limitations.