TEHRAN – The tourism industry of Kermanshah has taken some 670 billion rials (about $16 million at the official exchange rate of 42,000 rials per dollar) hit from the coronavirus outbreak so far, the provincial tourism chief has announced. 

Some 1,130 tourism workers across the western province have also lost their jobs, Jabbar Gohari said on Friday. 

A significant part of the tourism industry was damaged by the coronavirus restrictions, which reduced the activity of various sectors to five percent of what it was before the pandemic, the official explained.  

Many hotels and eco-lodges were forced to close, and many laid off their staff, he noted. 

He expressed hope, however, that the broad public vaccination and normalized conditions would result in a boom in tourism and job creation.

Back in July, ISNA reported that Iran’s tourism industry has suffered a loss of some 320 trillion rials ($7.6 billion at the official exchange rate of 42,000 rials per dollar) since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. 

The pandemic has also ruined more than 44,000 jobs in the once budding travel sector of the country, the report added. 

As a result of the outbreak of the coronavirus in Iran and the subsequent unemployment and financial losses, accommodation centers suffered the most. These statistics cover the period between February 2020 and the spring of 2021.

Kermanshah embraces a variety of awe-inspiring historical sites, of which Bisotun and Taq-e Bostan are both on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

Inscribed into the base of a towering cliff, Taq-e Bostan comprises extraordinary Sassanian bas-reliefs of ancient victorious kings divide opinions. Late afternoon is the best time to visit, as the cliff turns a brilliant orange in the setting sun, which then dies poetically on the far side of the duck pond.

Bisotun is a patchwork of immense yet impressive life-size carvings depicting King Darius I and several other figures. UNESCO has it that Bisotun bears outstanding testimony to the important interchange of human values on the development of monumental art and writing, reflecting ancient traditions in monumental bas-reliefs.

ABU/AFM