Iran finally reopens its borders for fully vaccinated international tourists

Thursday, October 28, 2021

After almost 20 months, Iran has finally reopened its borders for fully vaccinated international tourists. The country had shut down its borders after the breakout of the virus. But recently, the anti-virus taskforce reopened the borders based on the advice of the tourism ministry. For entering Iran, tourists must be fully vaccinated and also carry a RT PCR negative certificate taken within 96 hours.

During 2020-2021, the nation’s tourism sector was affected badly due to the pandemic and recorded a shortfall of USD 1.2 billion. A number of hoteliers and tour operators faced obstacles like bankruptcy, unemployment and debts on the international level.

On September 19, Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Minister EzzatollahZarghami announced plans to remove visa restrictions to revive the tourism industry. Also, the number of people testing positive for the virus has started to decline in the nation in recent times.As of September 22, the number has gone below 300 people. Zarghami’sprecursor, Ali-AsgharMounesan, said that the number of foreign travelers to Iran declined considerably due to the virus outbreak.

Mounesan said, “Tourism of the country was growing before the corona [outbreak], its revenues reached $11.7 billion in 2019, which accounted for 2.8% of GDP, nearing the average share of tourism in the world GDP, which was 3.2 percent.”

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