TEHRAN – The number of foreign travelers to Iran has seen a considerable year-on-year growth as medical tourism gains momentum in the country, tourism chief has said.

“During the first seven months [of the year, starting March 21], some 4.7 million foreign tourists arrived in the country that shows a significant progress compared to the same period last year,” Ali-Asghar Mounesan said on Wednesday, CHTN reported.

“We can say that we have improved in all arenas of foreign tourism, however, medical tourism has achieved the highest growth.”

Iran hosted some three million inbound passengers during the same period last year, the official added.

“The country is also thriving in the field of domestic tourism,” said Mounesan who doubles as vice president.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the official said, “In the sphere of medical tourism, Oman is one of our targets for whom Iran has unilaterally waived visa requirements.”

“Revoking visa requirements for Chinese travelers is also on the agenda,” he said.

Medical tourist arrivals in the country has nearly doubled in the first three months of the current Iranian calendar year, corresponding to spring 2018, from a year earlier, an official with the Ministry of Health said in September.

The 2019 Travel Risk Map, which shows the risk level around the world, puts Iran among countries with “insignificant risk”, a category where the UK, Denmark, Switzerland, Norway, and Finland are placed in. 

AFM/MQ/MG