MOSCOW (RIA Novosti) – Russia's government has approved a draft agreement with Iran on cooperation in the tourism industry, a spokesman said Friday.

The five-year agreement aims to promote tour groups and individual tourism to both countries by simplifying travel bureaucracy, to facilitate the arrangement of symposiums and exchange schemes for experts and journalists specializing in tourism issues, and to boost contacts between tour operators, reports Trend.

Some 29,000 Russians visit Iran each year on business, and only 1,000 come to the country as tourists, whereas neighboring Turkey annually hosts up to 1.5 million Russian tourists. Only five tour agencies in Russia currently offer trips to Iran.