TEHRAN – Some 30,000 Iranians got visas for Spain in 2018, Madrid’s ambassador to Tehran has said.

Eduardo López Busquets told Mehr in an interview released on Sunday that some 15,000 Spanish travelers arrived in Iran in 2018 while some 30,000 Iranian nationals were granted visas for Spain in the same year.

Spaniards mostly visited the cities of Isfahan, Shiraz, Kashan and Yazd, the ambassador said, adding that Spanish people used to arrive in Iran generally for trade and business but nowadays they mostly visit the country for tourism purposes. 

“I have visited various Iranian cities from [southern coasts of the] Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf, cities such as Asaluyeh, Shiraz, Tabriz, Kish, Isfahan, Yazd, Mashhad, Kashan.”

The one scheme that can help the tourism industry in this country is [following] tourist routes [for instance the one that] connects Mashhad to Kerman and other tourist cities so that they arranged in the same path, Busquets explained.

Commenting on traveling in the country, the ambassador noted one of the major challenges Iran’s tourism is facing is the shortage of quality hotels. 

Here the private sector plays an important role and the country cannot make progress in this regard until it wants to wait for foreign capital, the top diplomat added.

In a late September interview with ILNA, Busquets stated that Iran is an amazing and wonderful country for tourists.

Iran is an amazing and wonderful country for tourists and [some] ninety percent of Spanish cultural tourists are willing to visit the country at least for once, he said.

“Iran is home to the most genuinely hospitable people who greet foreign tourists with open arms.”

“Most of these tourists are attracted to monuments and culture of Iran. Although they may have been given a different picture of Iran in the media, tourists certainly change their minds about the country after a visit to Iran,” the ambassador stated.

Presently, a loan exhibit from Spain’s Archeological Museum of Alicante (MARQ) in on show at the National Museum of Iran. The large-scale exhibition features around 300 objects, some of which dating for millennia.

The exhibit is in return for a landmark Iranian exhibit titled “Iran, Cradle of Civilization” that the Spanish museum had hosted from March 14 to September 1, pulling in 101,108 visitors Spain and other nationalities.

AFM/MG