TEHRAN – Iran’s outbound tourism slumped 24.5% during the first month of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21) from the same period a year earlier, a tourism official said on Wednesday.

“A total of 660,314 Iranian nationals traveled overseas during the month of Farvardin (March 21-April 20) while 874,633 people traveled abroad in the same period last year, which indicates a 30 percent decline,” Vali Teymori said, ISNA reported.

In one hand, sharp rises in the value of foreign currencies against rial have pushed up the costs of traveling in the country. On the other, U.S.-led sanctions together with its anti-Iran propaganda campaign has lessened Western travelers to the Islamic Republic but the country is doing its best to attract more visitors from neighbors.

Earlier in March, Iran tourism chief Ali-Asghar Mounesan estimated that domestic trips would grow by 20 percent over the New Year (Noruz) holidays in Farvardin, saying “This year, there have been three million dropping of foreign travels, and if this [figure] is to be added to domestic travels, we will have a 20 percent increase in [the number of domestic] travels during Noruz.”

AFM/MQ/MG