TEHRAN – Noruz travelers made over 600,000 overnight stays in Tehran province during the Persian new year holidays (started March 21), the provincial tourism chief has said.

Due to the coronavirus outbreak last Noruz, Tehran’s occupancy rate of accommodation centers was the lowest in its annual average, however, during this Noruz, occupancy rates topped 85 percent, CHTN quoted Parham Janfeshan as saying on Wednesday.

The tourists and travelers stayed at authorized accommodation centers such as hotels, motels, tourist complexes, guest houses, and apartment hotels during the mentioned time, the official added.

Earlier this week, a tourism official announced that Iranians made over 50 million overnight stays during the Noruz holidays.

“Based on data obtained from all provinces, a total of 50, 663, 296 overnight stays have been recorded across the country during Noruz holidays,” he noted.

The majority of the overnight stays were recorded in authorized accommodation centers, hotels, and guest houses in the provinces of Mazandaran, Khorasan Razavi, Gilan, Hormozgan, Fars, Isfahan, Bushehr, Yazd, Khuzestan, and Tehran, the official said.

On March 12, President Ebrahim Raisi said Iranians who have received the second dose of COVID vaccine were allowed to travel across the country during the new year holidays.

Noruz journeys as well as (public) gatherings and celebrations will be allowed if coronavirus protocols declared by National Headquarters for Coronavirus Control are observed by people, Raisi said.

“Noruz ceremonies and trips, if practiced under health protocols, could be beneficial for the revival of the tourism industry and handicrafts, which have been severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic in many provinces,” he explained.

Last year, in the face of intensive coronavirus restrictions, the number of domestic travels fell by 96 percent during the Noruz holidays compared to two years earlier, the tourism ministry announced. 

Iranians made some 2.5 million overnight stays across the country during the Noruz holidays, while the number added up to over 74 million in the same period in 1398 (March 21-April 2, 2019), which shows a drastic fall.

Available data suggest the country’s tourism industry has suffered $233m losses due to COVID restrictions over the past two years. “Iranian tourism facilities have incurred a loss of 69 trillion rials ($233 million) due to the outbreak of the coronavirus over the past two years,” an official with the tourism ministry said in January.

Iranians traditionally make hundreds of thousands of domestic trips during the New Year holidays, when most businesses and workplaces are closed, as are schools.

The first time Tehran is mentioned in historical accounts is in an 11th-century chronicle in which it is described as a small village north of Ray.

Rey, in which signs of settlement date from 6000 BC, is often considered to be Tehran’s predecessor. It became the capital city of the Seljuk Empire in the 11th century but later declined with factional strife between different neighborhoods and the Mongol invasion of 1220.

Tehran has many to offer its visitors including Golestan Palace, Grand Bazaar, Treasury of National Jewels, National Museum of Iran, Glass & Ceramic Museum, Masoudieh Palace, Sarkis Cathedral, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, and Carpet Museum of Iran, to name a few.

ABU/MG