TEHRAN—The Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts has declared that with the implementation of a new agreement with Iraq, the capacity of road travel from Basra to various Iranian cities will rise, predicting that the number of Iraqi visitors will reach five million from the current 3.5 million.

According to Miras-e Arya (CHTN), speaking on the sidelines of a cabinet session, he said that 80 individuals from the Iranian hoteliers and travel agencies are currently in Iraq to implement a new direction for land travel from Basra to other cities in the country and expand tourism capacity.

He also said the agreement is a milestone in the development of tourism between the two countries, which was proposed by the Iraqi side and will be implemented soon.
Salehi-Amiri gave news of his travel to Baghdad for finalizing and signing the memoranda of understanding, adding that, fortunately, Iraqis are currently traveling to the cities of Mashhad, Isfahan, Shiraz, Kish, Rasht, and other cities in Iran, and one of the main centers of Iran’s tourism policies is Iraq, and the relevant agreements will be finalized soon.

He also noted about domestic cultural and tourism projects: “The physical progress of the tomb of Shams Tabrizi has currently reached 58 percent and is expected to be completed in less than a year. This tomb will be inaugurated on the day of commemoration of Rumi and Shams, in September 2026, designed and built by our country's expert architects. With the inauguration of this magnificent building, the city of Khoy will also become a pilgrimage site for lovers of Rumi and Shams, like Konya.”

Salehi-Amiri concluded by emphasizing: “Developing tourism and creating cultural and pilgrimage infrastructure not only plays a key role in promoting cultural and economic exchanges between Iran and Iraq, but also strengthens Iran's position as a strategic and luxurious destination for regional tourists.”

A memorandum of understanding to develop tourism cooperation between Iran and Iraq was signed in Baghdad in the presence of the head of the Iraqi Tourism Organization, members of the parliaments of the two countries, the Iranian ambassador to Iraq, the director general of marketing and foreign tourism development, and a large group of tourism industry activists, the Young Journalists Club (YJC) reported.

In this memorandum, which was signed simultaneously with the Iranian roadshow in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, by Hormatollah Rafiei, the director of the Association of Iranian Travel Agencies, and Haider Amer Al-Dujaili, head of the Iraqi Travel Service Bureaus Association, the private sectors of the two countries were obliged to send five million tourists to each other's countries annually.

Rafiei, who is present in Baghdad with the members of the board of directors of the association, referred to the importance of concluding this memorandum of understanding in the private sector of the two countries: “The efforts of the private sectors of Iran and Iraq, which are the pioneers of the tourism industry of the two countries and make the wheels of the economy in the field of tourism in Iran and Iraq turn, are commendable in the understanding for the bilateral development of tourism.”

Rafiei considered the holding of the Iranian tourism roadshow in Iraq and the signing of the bilateral memorandum of understanding to develop tourism interactions between the two countries to lead to a change in the perspective of the target markets of tourism from the West to neighboring countries, and added that with the signing of the memorandum of understanding between the private sectors of Iran and Iraq, the share of incoming tourists from the two countries will reach 50 percent.

He announced that, fortunately, with the establishment of the Iranian Tourism Roadshow in Iraq and the signing of a bilateral memorandum of understanding to send tourists to various destinations in the two countries, in addition to pilgrimage destinations, the Iranian and Iraqi tourism road will be two-way and the level of tourist attraction from both countries will be the same.

Rafiei said that based on the memorandum of understanding signed with the Iraqi side and with the efforts of private activists in the tourism industry and the support of the Iranian and Iraqi governments, the result of the understanding with the Iraqi tourism private sector will be a share of five million in sending tourists from Iran and Iraq, and thus 10 million tourists will travel between the two countries annually.

He said that as a result of a joint meeting between the Association of Iranian Travel Agencies and Ahmed Al-Hakak, the Iraqi Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, a memorandum of understanding for cooperation between the private sectors of the two countries was drafted and signed in Baghdad.

Rafiei announced: “The memorandum of understanding on cooperation in tourism between Iran and Iraq focuses on four axes: pilgrimage, which is currently underway and must be systematized; sightseeing tourism, which the two countries have not been able to use seriously so far and is being implemented for the first time; health tourism, which Iran continues to be the leading tourism sector in the region, and Iraqi tourists, without knowing it, went to other countries for treatment at much higher costs than in Iran; and finally, scientific tourism, which was specifically put on the agenda so that universities in the two countries could benefit from the presence of Iranian and Iraqi students. It was focused on and was ultimately signed by the private sectors of the two countries.

KD