TEHRAN – The number of foreign travelers visiting Iran’s Yazd province surged 29 percent in the first four months of the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 21) from a year earlier, a provincial tourism official has said.

A total of 51,718 foreign nationals toured the central province during the four-month period, which shows a 29 percent growth year on year, Homa Khorshidi said on Sunday, CHTN reported.

A majority of the visitors were from Italy, Germany, France, China and Spain, the official noted.

The number of foreign arrivals in Yazd has varied between 100,000 to 150,000 people over the past couple of years. The province also welcomed some one million domestic travelers during the two-week Noruz holidays (ended on April 4), Khorshidi explained.

“The province is home to over 4,000 cultural heritage sites and travel destinations and it also has a wealth of intangible cultural heritage… It embraces portions of Iran’s glorious cultural heritage and ancient civilization….”

In July 2017, historical structure of the city of Yazd, which is the capital of Yazd province, was named a UNESCO World Heritage. The oasis city is wedged between the northern Dasht-e Kavir and southern Dasht-e Lut on a flat plain ringed by mountains. Its historical structure enjoys a very harmonious public-religious architecture that dates from different eras.

The city of Yazd is usually referred to as a delightful place to stay, or a “don't miss” destination by almost all of its visitors. It is teemed with mudbrick houses that are equipped with innovative badgirs (wind catchers), atmospheric alleyways, and many Islamic and Iranian monuments that shape its eye-catching city landscape.   

The province has an interesting mix of people as well, some 10 percent of whom follow the ancient religion of Zoroastrianism.

AM/MG