TEHRAN- Lorestan province has recorded over 383,000 overnight stays, mainly by domestic travelers, in the first half of the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 21), a provincial official announced.

383,295 overnight stays have been recorded for the first half of the current year at authorized accommodation centers such as hotels, traditional lodging houses, eco-lodge units, apartment hotels, and guest houses, the provincial tourism chief said on Saturday.

Having a favorable climate and considerable tourism capacities in historical, cultural, and natural areas, Lorestan attracts domestic and foreign tourists in all seasons of the year, Ata Hassanpur said.

Before the COVID pandemic, Iran tourism had constantly been growing, reaching more than eight million visitors in the Iranian calendar year 1398 (started March 21, 2019). That surge, however, helped prejudices to become thick and thin.

Mass COVID-19 vaccinations, consecutive fam tours for foreign tour operators, easing travel procedures, and fresh strategies, altogether, suggest Iran is determined to experience a tourism rebound with a greater reliance on its numerous tourist spots of which 26 are UNESCO World Heritage, and above all, its welcoming people.

Mass vaccinations against COVID-19, back-to-back familiarization visits for foreign tour operators, streamlined travel procedures and new strategies suggest that Iran is determined to see a recovery in tourism, relying more on its many tourist attractions, 26 of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. and especially its hospitable people.

Lorestan, which is a region of raw beauty, was inhabited by Iranian Indo-European peoples, including the Medes, c. 1000 BC. Cimmerians and Scythians intermittently ruled the region from about 700 to 625 BC. The Luristan Bronzes, noted for their eclectic array of Assyrian, Babylonian, and Iranian artistic motifs, date from this turbulent period.

Lorestan was incorporated into the growing Achaemenid Empire in about 540 BC and successively was part of the Seleucid, Parthian, and Sassanid dynasties.

AM