TEHRAN –The Iranian government has allocated some 440 billion rials ($1.6 million) to support tourism and handicrafts businesses across the northern province of Golestan, the provincial tourism chief has announced. 

This amount of money is planned to be paid in loan to the eligible applicants, Ahmad Tajari said on Tuesday. 

A priority for receiving loans are small and medium-sized handicraft workshops and tourism projects that have made more than 70% progress, the official added. 

Back in May, the official announced that to compensate for the coronavirus outbreak damages the Iranian government paid some 147 billion rials ($526,000) in loans to the tourism businesses affected by the pandemic as well as floods in the province.

Furthermore, the changing scene of tourism, ceremonies, exhibitions, and festivals have contributed to the level of handicrafts sales since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, he added.

Travel-related businesses were also severely damaged when the province was hit hard by catastrophic floods during the Iranian New Year holidays in March 2019, he mentioned.

Golestan is reportedly embracing some 2,500 historical and natural sites, with UNESCO-registered Gonbad-e Qabus – a one-millennium-old brick tower – amongst its most famous. Narratives say the tower has influenced various subsequent designers of tomb towers and other cylindrical commemorative structures both in the region and beyond. The UNESCO comments that the tower bears testimony to the cultural exchange between Central Asian nomads and the ancient civilization of Iran.

ABU/AFM