Iran to woo Chinese tourists with visa-free entry ‘within weeks’
- Tehran sees economic promise in moving from oil to tourism industry
- Expects to attract ‘one million Chinese’ in near future
Iran is hoping to attract up to one million Chinese tourists from next month in a bid to shore up its falling economy, badly hit by US sanctions.
Vali Teymouri, Iran's deputy director for tourism affairs, told the South China Morning Post that the Iranian government’s new visa waiver program for Chinese visitors – first announced in June – could be implemented as early as the end of this month.
Teymouri said Iran expected to “attract one million Chinese in the near future” through the visa waiver, a significant increase on the more than 52,000 Chinese who visited the Middle East country in 2018.
“We believe that the two countries have had common cultural and trade communications for a long time. So we should facilitate and improve mutual collaborations, especially in the tourism industry,” he said.
Iran's economy has been sliding towards recession since last year and has been deeply affected by sanctions imposed by US President Donald Trump's administration.
Tehran's Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported in late June that the Iranian government had passed a regulation to cancel visa formalities for Chinese nationals, at the suggestion of the country's foreign ministry and the tourism agency, Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organisation (ICHTO).
