TEHRAN – Iran and Qatar have launched a new direct shipping route, connecting the southern Iranian port city of Bushehr to Qatar’s Doha.

The shipping line is scheduled to operate once a week carrying both passengers and cargoes, Siavash Arjmandzadeh, the managing director of Bushehr’s Ports and Maritime Department announced on Sunday, Mehr reported.

Passengers can go on four- to five-day tours paying $200 to $500, he said, adding the tours take 12 hours to 20 hours depending on weather conditions and the speed of the ships.

Iran has recently established or reactivated a number of sea travel routes, which is expected to lend a hand to the tourism sector that has fallen victim to a foreign currency crisis caused by sanctions, the report said.

As unilateral U.S. sanctions against Iran snapped back, pressuring the country’s limited foreign currency reserves, the Islamic Republic is increasingly paying attention to marine travel as a major way of boosting its underdeveloped tourism sector.

A total of 1,759,749 Iranians traveled abroad in the first quarter of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-June 21), indicating a 6.5% decrease compared with the same period last year.

AFM/MG