TEHRAN – Handicrafts exports from western Kermanshah province reached some $15 million in the first nine months of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21, 2019), showing 40 percent growth year on year.

“About 60 fields of handicraft are practiced by nearly 13,000 artisans [and crafters] across the Kermanshah province,” provincial tourism director Omid Qaderi said on Wednesday, ISNA reported.

Talking about developing plans to promote handicraft exports, Qaderi said that expansion of training [workshops], branding, commercializing, and establishing handicraft markets are among programs to support the province’s handicrafts.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the official announced that 568,000 people visited museums and historical sites in Kermanshah.

Foreign visits to the museums and historical sites shows a 27 percent increase year on year, because “last year, we began planning to promote tourism across the province's historical sites.”

Handicraft exports from Iran reached $146 million since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year, deputy tourism minister Pouya Mahmoudian announced last week, IRNA reported.

“Iraq and Persian Gulf littoral countries are among the main target markets for Iranian handicrafts,” Handicrafts exports of the country reached $289 million in the past Iranian calendar year 1397, showing three percent growth year on year, Mahmoudian said.

Taq-e Bostan and the UNESCO-registered Bisotun are amongst top travel destinations of the western province. Inscribed into the base of a towering cliff, Taq-e Bostan comprises extraordinary Sassanian bas-reliefs of ancient victorious kings divide opinions. Late afternoon is the best time to visit, as the cliff turns a brilliant orange in the setting sun, which then dies poetically on the far side of the duck pond. Bisotun is a patchwork of immense yet impressive life-size carvings depicting the king Darius I and several other figures. UNESCO has it that Bisotun bears an outstanding testimony to the important interchange of human values on the development of monumental art and writing, reflecting ancient traditions in monumental bas-reliefs.

AFM/MG