TEHRAN – Head of Honorary Consulate of Lithuania in Iran has said the Iranian medical industry could attract patients from Lithuania or other European countries.

The level of medical equipment and knowledge of Iranian physicians can be considered as a good factor for attracting medical tourists from Europe, especially from Lithuania, Mehr quoted Mohsen Karimi Tabbasi as saying on Tuesday.

“Last year, India managed to earn $400 million worth of revenues … the Islamic Republic of Iran can also earn high revenues in in this lucrative industry due to its high level of medical and healthcare services especially in its equipped hospitals and medical treatment centers.”

For the time being, a majority of medical and health travelers to Iran are from Iraq, Azerbaijan, Armenia and the Persian Gulf littoral states.

“Focusing on health tourism is of our main priorities … and we are going to bring medical tourists from Lithuania and then from its neighboring countries into Iran,” he added.

“Like any other European country, I am sure that Lithuanian tourists will be excited to see Iranian cities such as Shiraz, Kerman and Isfahan,” he explained.

Talking about foreign arrivals in Lithuania, Karimi Tabbasi said the European country hosted 2.5 million tourists in 2017.

Establishing non-stop flights was another issue he touched upon, saying, “There is still no direct flight between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Lithuania but we are negotiating with the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization to launch [flights] if possible.”

Iran’s medical tourist arrivals 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, has considered Iran as safe as the UK, Denmark, Switzerland, Norway, Finland and some other countries in its “insignificant risk” category.

AFM/MQ/MG