Iran considering border easing and visa waiver for 60 countries

Friday, July 14, 2023

The Islamic Republic of Iran is thinking about an offer for border relaxation regarding which it might
unilaterally dismiss visa necessities for passport owners of 60 states, said Ali-Asghar Shalbafian, the Iranian deputy tourism minister.

The minister said that the tourism ministry’s suggestion to waive requirements of visa with 60 countries is presently to be decided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and appropriate experts.

Shalbafian said that the suggestion was submitted to the President’s office following Ayatollah Ebrahim Raisi’s visit to the tourism department.

The arrangement suggests unilateral annulment of visas with Muslim countries and adjoining states to grow the number of global influxes, said the minister.

Iran witnessed around 850,000 foreign tourist entrances for the period of initial two months of this
year, which shows more than 50 percent progress year on year, said the country’s tourism ministry.

In accordance with the information bureau of the World Tourism Organization, overseas traveller influxes in Iran in 2022 augmented 315 percent likened to a year before. As per data, around 4.1 million tourists visited Iran in 2022, with the Islamic Republic seeing 990,000 travellers in 2021.

The increase of foreign traveller appearances in 2022 was three times the global average development in this area.

Nonetheless, Iran’s stake in enticing foreign travellers is still minor and merely 0.4% of all foreign tourist tours in 2022 were directed toward Iran, said a report.

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