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Visitor Figures
The most up-to-date figures from the World Tourism Organisation for
the origin of visitors to Iran show that building up visitors from
the Islamic and wider Asian world will have to start from a low
base. Around three-quarters of those entering Iran in 1999 came from
Europe. Of those, as might be expected, only a minority were from
western European countries.
According to Iranian officials, in a change of trend, about
1,659,000 foreign tourists visited Iran in 2004; most came from
Asian countries, including the republics of Central Asia, while a
small share (about 10%) came from North America and the European
Union including Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, France, Belgium.[2] The
most popular tourist destinations are Esfahan, Mashhad, and Shiraz.
There is undoubtedly great scope for increased visitors from the
Islamic world, and possibly also from non-Muslim countries with
which Iran is developing business and political links, such as China
and India.
The majority of the 300,000 tourist visas granted in 2003 were
obtained by Asian Muslims, who presumably intended to visit
important pilgrimage sites in Mashhad and Qom. Several organized
tours from Germany, France, UK and other European countries come to
Iran annually to visit archaeological sites and monuments.
From 2004, the country experienced a 100-percent growth in foreign
tourist arrivals until mid-2008 when the number of foreign arrivals
surged up to 2.5 million. Specially, there has been an enormous
increase in the number of German tourists traveling to Iran in
2008.[3]
The World Tourism and Travel Council claims that business and
personal tourism rose by 11.3% and 4.6%, respectively, in real terms
in 2007, with the growth in personal tourism only modestly below
that of the preceding year.
Cyrus' tomb lies in Pasargadae, a UNESCO World Heritage SiteDemand
and supply (Source: EIU) 2004 2005 2006 est.
International tourism, arrivals ('000) 1,656 1,720 1,769
International tourism, receipts (US$ m) 917 971 1,022
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