TEHRAN – Iranian museums and historical sites have taken 600 billion rials (about $14.2 million) hit from the coronavirus outbreak over the previous months.

Although the museums and other tourist sites have reopened their doors to the public gradually as restrictions over the coronavirus pandemic have been relaxed, they faced a huge loss due to the closure, ILNA quoted Mohammadreza Kargar, the director of museums and historical properties at the tourism ministry, as saying on Friday.

However, the number of visitors during the past two weeks is not as much as we expected, he added.

Considering the fact that there are no foreign tourists in the country, the number of foreign tourists visiting museums is zero and the domestic visitors are only 20 percent of the number of the visitors in same period of time in the past year, he stated.

The country closed cultural heritage museums and historical sites in a preventive measure amid fears of coronavirus outbreak back in February.

During the Iranian New Year (Noruz) holidays in late March, some museums and tourist sites arranged online visits and virtual tours for the people who were in-home quarantine.

The virtual tours were extended for the following months and a number of people explored centuries-old objects at museums as well as tourist attractions across the country.

ABU/MG