TEHRAN – Hundreds of potential travelers for Noruz holidays are choosing, bargaining or even negotiating prices with travel markets at the 12th Tehran International Tourism Exhibition, which will be running through February 16.

Every year, People in Iran make hundreds of thousands of domestic trips during the Persian New Year holidays, when most businesses and workplaces are closed, as are schools.

“Tourism and Digital Transformation” has been selected as the motto of the event, in which tens of e-travel companies are turning the spotlight on ecotourism, health tourism, various regional communities and tribes, their traditions, arts, cuisine and rituals.

The exhibit is attended by 660 Iranian companies and 57 ones from Turkey, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Italy, Indonesia, Pakistan, Germany, India, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Afghanistan, according to organizers.

Stalls of travel markers, tour operators, hoteliers, and airliners are quite busy with people doing business in various arenas including medical, health, pilgrimage and eco-tourism.

They, however, hope to revive travel market that has been battered over the past couple of months mainly by sharp rises in the value of foreign currencies against rial.

Iran’s outbound tourism fell by 30 percent during the first nine months of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21, 2018) from a year earlier, according to data compiled by the Cultural Heritage, Handicraft and Tourism Organization.

Visitors to the exhibit, which is underway at the Tehran International Permanent Fairground, have also the chance to taste variety of traditional and regional snacks and dishes which are usually embellished with fragrant herbs while principally accentuate on freshness, deliciousness, and colorfulness.

Iran embraces hundreds of historical sites such as bazaars, museums, mosques, bridges, bathhouses, madrasas, mausoleums, churches, towers, and mansions, of which 22 being inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

The country’s ultimate goal is to attract 20 million foreign tourists annually by 2025.

AFM/MQ/MG