Iran Announces Visa Waiver for Chinese Tourists

Iran will no longer require Chinese visitors to obtain visas, state media reported Sunday, as the sanctions-hit country attempts to boost tourism in the face of an economic crisis.

"The cabinet has agreed to waive visa requirements for Chinese nationals entering the Islamic Republic of Iran," state news agency IRNA said.

Tourism board chief Ali Asghar Mounesan told IRNA that "we aim to host two million Chinese tourists per year using our country's numerous attractions."

He said the sector is "unsanctionable" and could help offset the economic hardships caused by tough sanctions Washington reinstated after withdrawing from a multilateral nuclear deal last year.

The sanctions have particularly targeted Iran's vital oil exports and international financial transactions, and were a major factor in the country's ongoing recession.

According to IRNA, some 52,000 Chinese tourists visited Iran during the 12 months to March.

In another bid to boost tourist arrivals, Iran recently announced it would no longer stamp visitors' passports, allowing them to bypass a US entry ban on travelers who have visited the Islamic Republic.

China is one of the remaining partners in the nuclear deal and has rejected the Trump administration's policy of seeking to cut Iranian oil exports to zero.

Tehran has threatened to abandon some of its commitments under the nuclear deal unless the remaining partners—Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia—help it circumvent US sanctions, especially on oil sales.

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Iran Holidays at Home as Trump Puts Exotic Trips Out of Reach

Rare wildlife and dramatic canyons attracted a steady stream of travelers to Mina Fatemi Sadr’s hotel on Iran’s Qeshm island each Persian New Year holiday. Then it got its biggest break courtesy of Donald Trump.

His decision in May to reimpose U.S. sanctions led to a collapse in the rial currency that’s sapped Iranians’ spending power, forcing many to abandon the idea of expensive overseas trips. While the resulting runaway prices and shortages are causing hardship for poorer Iranians, it’s boom time on dolphin-shaped Qeshm in the Gulf.

“We were at full capacity last year, too, at Norouz,” Fatemi Sadr said, referring to Iran’s new year that starts in late March. This year, though, the rooms, flats and villas at her Fulton complex started filling up as the weather cooled around November and there’s been a 30 percent increase over the period from a year ago. It’s a similar picture all over the island, she said.

Home to a free-trade zone specializing in discounted electronics and clothes, Qeshm was touted as a potential beneficiary after Iran signed a 2015 deal with world powers that lifted most economic penalties in return for caps on the country’s nuclear program. A local official said in 2016 that Japanese, Chinese and Russian banks were interested in opening offices on the island as excitement grew over the opening up of an Iranian market of 80 million people.

Silver Lining

Trump’s anti-Iran drive put paid to those hopes, but tourism is providing a silver lining.

Among Qeshm’s attractions are the exotically-named Valley of Stars with its gorges and canyons, mangrove forests peppered with egrets, and fishing villages spread along sandy beaches. They have for years lured a smattering of local travelers and a few adventurous foreigners. The Lonely Planet guide to Iran refers to Qeshm as “bliss for nature-lovers” and in 2017 it became a UNESCO Global Geopark.

Its sights may not be as appealing to middle-class Iranians who in recent years favored new year destinations such as Turkey, Dubai, Thailand and Malaysia—but they’re affordable and within easier reach. Major carriers Air France-KLM Group and British Airways suspended services to Iran last year, citing the reduced commercial viability of the routes in the wake of U.S. sanctions. Low-cost carrier flydubai has also canceled its Tehran route.

Staying Put

Vali Teymouri, deputy director for tourism affairs at the Cultural Heritage, Handicraft and Tourism Organization, said travel agencies have registered a 60 percent drop in international tour packages and officials have sought to promote domestic tourism instead. Iran’s Hotel Association says southern regions like Qeshm, Kerman and the more commercialized Kish islands in the Gulf are more popular this year.

Hamzeh Mohammadi’s small Asmari hotel a few hundred meters from a beach on Qeshm is full, with reservations up 40 percent from last year.

“It became clear in the winter that there are more travelers,” he said, arriving from as far afield as Tehran and the northern cities of Tabriz and Mashhad. “There are more visitors coming for tourism but less people who come to shop.”

Others are just staying at home. A nationwide survey by the Donya-e-Eqtesad newspaper of 3,545 Iranians showed 40 percent had no travel plans for Norouz. Another 45 percent said they would travel domestically, while two percent planned to go abroad at low cost.

Haleh used to live frugally so she could afford to sign up for a Norouz package tour to destinations that included Russia, India and South Africa. This year, she’s turning back the clock with a new year from her Tehran childhood.

“You visited relatives at their home,” she said. “You sat down and just talked about life.”

Photo Credit: Bloomberg

Qatar Airways to Expand Iran Flights Despite Sanctions

Qatar Airways announced Monday it is expanding operations in Iran, despite US sanctions on the Islamic republic and a Gulf diplomatic rift over accusations Doha was too close to Tehran.

The carrier will begin twice-weekly flights to Isfahan in February 2019 and increase existing services to Shiraz and Tehran in January 2019, it said in a statement.

"These latest launches are further evidence of Qatar Airways' commitment to Iran," said Akbar al-Baker, the airline's group chief executive.

Last month, Baker said services to Iran would continue despite a tightening economic and political squeeze on the Islamic republic by Washington.

The United States said it would impose sanctions on any American or foreign company that continues to do business with Iran, prompting some major airlines, including Air France, KLM and British Airways, to stop flights to Iran.

A first tranche of US punitive measures were introduced in August after Washington withdrew earlier this year from the 2015 international deal aimed at curbing Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Coupled with the US sanctions, Qatar is under scrutiny from regional powers over its relationship with Iran.

Since June 5, 2017, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt have imposed a sweeping diplomatic and economic embargo on Qatar.

The four countries accuse Doha of seeking closer ties with Iran, Saudi Arabia's arch-rival, as well as supporting radical Islamist groups.

Qatar, which shares the world's largest natural gas field with Iran, denies the charges, saying its former allies are seeking regime change.

Photo Credit: Wikicommons

Iraq Religious Tourism Squeezed by Iran Sanctions

With hotels facing mass cancellations, Iraqis in the holy city of Najaf are being hit hard by US sanctions on neighboring Iran, which have forced cash-strapped pilgrims to stay home.

At the city's edge, surrounded by mosaic-covered walls and topped by a golden dome, sits the shrine of Imam Ali, son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed and a revered figure among Shiite Muslims.

The shrine draws a million and a half Shiite pilgrims to Najaf each year, in addition to those who travel to the holy city for the huge annual Arbaeen commemoration.

The vast majority hail from neighboring Iran, whose population is overwhelmingly Shiite.

"More than 85 percent are Iranians," said Saeb Abu Ghoneim, president of the hoteliers' union in the city.

Signs throughout the city, 150 kilometres (95 miles) south of Baghdad, are translated into Farsi.

Iran's national language can be heard across Najaf, spoken by women in full-length black veils and by male pilgrims, walking in the shade to avoid the searing sunlight.

But just days after Washington this month re-imposed sanctions on Iran, following President Donald Trump's decision to pull the US out of a landmark 2015 nuclear accord with Tehran, the impact is already being felt in Najaf.

Currency Crisis

The Iranian rial has been severely hit by internal economic woes and the US measures, losing around half of its value against the dollar since April.

Farzad Reza Ali, an Iranian who did manage to fund his trip to Najaf, said the drop in pilgrim numbers was a direct result of the currency crisis.

"(It's) because the rial is worth nothing," he said, a travel company badge tied to a ribbon around his neck in the colors of the Iranian flag.

The first round of sanctions against Iran covers financial transactions and imports of raw materials. 

Further measures due to hit in November will affect Iran's central bank and the vital hydrocarbon industry.

At the start of the year the dollar exchange rate was 42,900 rials. It has since hit nearly 120,000 rials on the black market.

To get the USD 40 needed for a visa to Iraq, Mokdabandeh Mehrban said he had to go to the black market.

"Now the market fluctuates and it's not supported by the government, so there are fewer Iranian pilgrims," he said, wearing large sunglasses and a striped shirt.

Market in 'Free Fall'

Cancellations by Iranian pilgrims could have dramatic consequences for Iraq's tourism sector, which last year directly or indirectly employed some 544,500 people.

It also contributed three percent of GDP, nearly $5 billion dollars, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.

Tourism is almost exclusively religious in Iraq and is concentrated in Najaf and nearly Karbala, the country's other holy Shiite city.

As Najaf prepares to welcome pilgrims for numerous religious festivals this month, there is a notable lack of Iranian arrivals.

Transport links have been slashed -- Najaf airport, which used to offer 35 flights a day between the two countries, now operates just 12.

Officials say most of the passengers on the flights leaving Najaf for Iran are Iraqi pilgrims heading for Iranian holy sites.

"A lot of hotel reservations have been cancelled and the number of pilgrims to Najaf is very fragile," said Abu Ghoneim, although he was unable to provide precise figures from the city's 285 hotels.

To counter the trend, hoteliers have been forced to offer rooms at bargain basement prices.

"Prices have been slashed, to less than 50 percent sometimes," said Youssef Abu Al-Tabouk, owner of Najaf's Al Balad Al Amine hotel.

But discounted stays and other special offers are not enough to make up for the impact of sanctions, the 85-year-old said, his head covered with a traditional black and white keffiyeh scarf. Without Iranian pilgrims, he said, "the market is in free fall."

Photo Credit: IRNA

UNESCO Adds 8 Pre-Islamic Iranian Sites to Heritage List

UNESCO on Saturday added eight pre-Islamic Iranian archeological sites to its World Heritage List, the UN agency announced at a meeting in the Bahraini capital. 

The sites collectively appear on the worldwide list as the "Sassanid Archaeological Landscape of Fars region (Islamic Republic of Iran)."

A province in modern-day Iran's south, Fars was the cradle of the Sassanid dynasty, which appeared at the start of the third century.

After the fall of the Parthian empire, the Sassanids ruled territory that, at its peak, stretched from the west of Afghanistan to Egypt, before falling to the Arab conquest under the Umayyad caliphate in the middle of the seventh century. 

"These fortified structures, palaces and city plans date back to the earliest and latest times of the Sassanian Empire," UNESCO said. 

With the latest addition, Iran now has 24 sites on the heritage list of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 

Photo Credit: Wikicommons

New Wave Of Iranian Globetrotters Hits The Road

A travel frenzy is gripping young Iranians, who are inspiring each other through social media to overcome traditional constraints and expand their horizons.

The exploits of young Iranian travelers, hitchhiking and backpacking their way around the globe, have become immensely popular on Instagram and Telegram, the most widely used apps in Iran, with some gathering more than 200,000 followers.

Iran has long had a globetrotting elite thanks to the large diaspora that fled to the United States and Europe after the 1979 revolution, but now it is the turn of the emerging middle class to stretch their wings, overcoming cultural barriers and parental worries in the process.

Sara Louee, 31, grew up thinking that holidays were a family trip to the northern coasts of Iran.

But two years ago, she met a group of foreigners through the website couchsurfing.com and joined them as they hitchhiked to the ancient city of Yazd.

She was unprepared: "I had absolutely no equipment. I was wearing flimsy girly shoes and had borrowed a backpack from a friend," she told AFP.

But her mind was opened to a world of possibility and she was soon saving for a 40-day trip around Europe, even if it meant battling with her conservative-minded parents.

"My family didn't accept it easily or overnight. I went through a lot of pain. But I gradually proved I could do it with shorter trips and gained their trust," said Louee, who now blogs regularly about her travels.

"These days, if I stay home at the weekend, my dad comes over and asks if something is wrong," she added, laughing.

'Strangers in your room?!'

Other young Iranians, particularly women, say they had been taught that travelling alone was dangerous.

"When I told people I stayed in a hostel in Europe, Iranians would be shocked and say 'You mean there were strangers in your room?! Didn't they do anything to you?'" said Mahzad Elyassi, another travel blogger.

She only heard about hitchhiking for the first time in 2015 but has since travelled to all 32 of Iran's provinces and 20 countries.

"We've proven that Iran is really safe for such trips. It's become a trend.

"One woman said she used my Instagram page to convince her husband, saying: 'If she can do it alone, so can we.'"

Last year, Iran recorded 9.2 million departures, a 38.5-percent increase on the previous year and almost double the numbers a decade ago.

The trend has been helped by President Hassan Rouhani, who came to power in 2013 promising to improve Iran's relations with the world.

Iranians are not welcome everywhere: the United States this year banned them from entry unless they have close family, and European countries have strict and laborious procedures for tourists designed to weed out poor people.

But much of the rest of the world is welcoming Iran's tourist boom, with 38 countries now waiving visas for Iranians.

They include Georgia, Russia, Turkey and Malaysia, and talks are reportedly under way with India.

Tech Support

That has helped encourage travel among those outside of the rich elite by putting the focus on cheaper countries.

"Maybe Iranians don't have enough dollars or euros to travel to Europe but they can explore places like southeast Asia," said Elyassi.

Technology has also been crucial.

"When I started, Google Maps didn't exist. People couldn't just easily travel and share their experiences," said Reza Pakravan, 43, one of Iran's best-known travelers after he broke the world record for crossing the Sahara on a bike.

Alireza Zafari, 38, has spent two years on the "Herculean task" of documenting the whole of Iran for travelers, a project he expects will take another eight years to complete.

He hopes to encourage more Iranians and foreigners to visit Iran's beauty spots rather than the default option of popping across the border to Turkey, still the top choice for Iranians with 2.1 million visits last year thanks to cheap package tours and the availability of booze.

"The reason behind the travel wave is that people have become aware of the world, and technology gives them easy access to the information they need," Zafari told AFP.

By Ali Noorani in Tehran

Photo Credit: Negar Ghaffari, Iran Open Album