ID :
397175
Tue, 02/16/2016 - 10:42
Auther :

Russia, Iran to sign tourism cooperation program

TEHRAN, February 16. /TASS/. The annual international tourism exhibition gets underway in the Iranian capital on Tuesday. It will last until February 19. Russia will present a single national stand there for the first time. The visit of head of Russia’s Federal Agency for Tourism Oleg Safonov to Tehran has been timed to coincide with the exhibition. During the visit, the Iranian and Russian sides will sign a memorandum of mutual understanding and joint action program for 2016-2018 on the implementation of the intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in tourism. Visit Russia office in Tehran In 2015, the number of Iranian tourists who visited Russia grew more than 100%. Their favorite destinations are Moscow and St.Petersburg. Many of them want to visit the Hermitage Museum, the Russian Museum and the Treatyakov Art Gallery. Some of the tourists are already aware that flights to Sochi are due to begin and showed interest in this. Russia’s Federal Tourism Agency (Rostourism) too expects further growth in the number of tourists from Iran. During Safonov’s visit to Tehran the Visit Russia national tourism office aimed at promoting Russian tourism products in the Islamic Republic will open in Tehran. Rostourism earlier said that it had opened five more Visit Russia offices abroad - in Rome, Berlin, Helsinki, Dubai and Beijing. According to the World Tourism Organization, Russia currently ranks fifth in the world market, with the number of foreigners visiting it last year growing 16%. Iran’s plans regarding Russia The Islamic Republic attaches paramount importance to the development of tourism and hopes to become even more attractive for foreign travelers setting a goal to increase the annual flow of tourists to 20 million people by 2025. Due to this, it hopes to attract up to $30 billion. In 2013, Iran’s international tourism revenue amounted to $6.5 billion. However, only 50,000 Russian citizens visited Iran last year. According to Iranian Vice President and head of the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization Masoud Soltanifar, the Islamic Republic hopes to attract from 1 to 2 million tourists from Russia per year. Abolition of tourist visas could contribute to this, he told the Financial Tribune daily. Simplification of visa regime Iranian Ambassador to Russia Mehdi Sanai earlier said that Tehran could unilaterally abolish visas for tourists. On February 6, the Intergovernmental agreement on simplifying the conditions of mutual trips of the two countries' citizens came into force. The agreement was signed on November 23, 2015, in Tehran following Russian-Iranian talks in the presence of presidents Vladimir Putin and Hassan Rouhani. The document envisages a simplified procedure of getting visas for representatives of the business community, persons involved in scientific, cultural and creative activities, students and teachers, tourists and other categories of citizens. Read more

X