TEHRAN – The number of passengers crossing the Bazargan border terminal, which connects Iran to Turkey, has jumped 113 percent year on year due to the ease of some coronavirus restrictions.

“321, 401 travelers have crossed the border terminal as of the beginning the [current Iranian calendar] year (started March 21, 2021) while we registered 150, 687 passengers for the same period last year,” IRNA quoted the director of the terminal, Jaber Akbarpour, as saying on Wednesday. 

“84, 542 foreign nationals arrived in Iran via the border terminal as of the beginning of the year while 56, 792 foreigners left the country from the same border terminal, which marks a 125% and a 211% increase year on year,”  Akbarpour explained.  

Some 1.47m foreign nationals visited Iran from the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year to January 1, a span most of which was subject to severe travel bans due to coronavirus. Of the number, 635, 862 people arrived in Iran as of mid-October when the Islamic Republic started issuance of tourist visas after a 20-month hiatus, Mehr reported.

Citizens from Iraq and Afghanistan were the main source of tourism for Iran from October 23 to December 22, 2021. “226,000 people from Iraq, 103,000 from Afghanistan, 90,000 from Turkey, 22,000 from Azerbaijan, and 18,000 from Bahrain arrived in Iran during the mentioned period,” the news agency said.

Furthermore, the Islamic Republic hosted 11,000 travelers from Pakistan, 6,000 from Russia, 2,000 from Germany, and a total of 88,000 people from other countries. In addition, from December 22, 2021, to January 1, 2022, some 23,000 people from Iraq, 10,000 from Afghanistan, 6,000 people from Turkey, 2,000 from Azerbaijan, 341 from Bahrain, 20,000 from Oman, 3,000 from Pakistan, 703 from Russia, 472 from Germany, and 6,000 from other countries visited Iran, the report said.

Last September, the Islamic Republic restarted the issuance of tourist visas following 19 months of suspension.

AFM