TEHRAN – The number of foreign visitors arriving in Iran’s northern Mazandaran province surged 38 percent since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21, 2019), compared with the same period last year, provincial deputy tourism chief has said.

“So far, 106,873 foreign travelers have visited Mazandaran since the beginning of the year, and the figure shows a 38 percent hike year on year,” Mehran Hassani announced on Saturday, IRNA reported.

The official added some 77,000 foreign nationals visited the province during the same period last year.

Some 535 overnight stays were recorded during the period for staying at hotels or authorized lodging houses and the figure doesn’t include the ones accommodated in unregistered places, the official explained.

On January 11, Hassani said that 22 tourism projects, worth 2,515 billion rials (some $60 million at the official rate of 42,000 rials) have been inaugurated in the province during the first nine months of the year.

Building hotels and hotel apartments, travel agencies, eco-lodge guest houses as well as recreational and tourist facilities are most the development projects that are estimated to generate some 1,500 jobs directly or indirectly, the official added.

Stretched along the Caspian Sea and Alborz mountain range, Mazandaran is a popular destination for domestic holidaymakers and it is home to more than 3500 villages and rural areas, hosted over three million night-stays during the previous Noruz holidays.

AFM/MG