According to officials from the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts, Iran’s borders were supposed to be open to foreign tourists this summer, but the Iran visa ban for foreign tourists is still suspended by the National Headquarters of Coronavirus Disease Management.
Vali Teymouri, deputy minister of tourism at the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, announced in June that after initial arrangements, the issuance of the Iran visa for foreign tourists will resume in the second half of July. The issuance of this visa has been stopped since April 2020, at the same time as the Coronavirus pandemic. However, the National Headquarters of Coronavirus Disease Management allowed only medical, business, and educational travel to Iran. According to the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts, 27,000 foreign nationals came to Iran for medical reasons in the first three months of this year.
Customs statistics also show that last year, despite visa restrictions, 4,343,163 passengers entered Iran, of whom 3,300,446 were Iranians and only 512,699 were foreigners. The motive for these foreign nationals’ travel has not been separately identified.
The reason why the Iran visa ban is still suspended
According to Iran Tripedia, officials said that the initial approval by the National Headquarters of Coronavirus Disease Management to resume issuing Iran visas for foreign tourists to Iran was passed in the winter of 2020, but each time due to what is called the beginning of a new peak of the disease in the country, approval and its implementation was delayed. The Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts, according to the latest talks with the committees of the headquarters, had hoped to open the borders to foreign tourists from the summer of 2021 and even asked in a meeting with provincial leaders to present Iran as a safe tourist destination. And strictly monitor compliance with sanitary protocols at tourist sites, but the National Headquarters of Coronavirus Disease Management has not yet issued a decree on the issuance of tourist visas. Nevertheless, the borders are open and international flights are available to more than 20 countries.
Alireza Salarian, head of Iran’s Foreign Ministry office in Isfahan Province, confirmed that Iran’s tourist visa is currently restricted in accordance with the directives of the National Headquarters to combat the coronavirus.
He said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not directly decide on the issuance of Iranian tourist visas, and now the issuance of visas is limited due to the order of the headquarters, and measures will be taken whenever any country is ordered to do so.
