TEHRAN – The Iranian tourism minister on Monday said that the country will follow up on the issue of visa-free travel for mutual tourist groups with Russia at the upcoming [27th edition] Moscow International Travel & Tourism Exhibition (MITT), which will be held from March 17 to 19.

“The Russian fair is very important [for us] so that we should have a strong and influential presence in this exhibition… One of the major issues is to pursue and finalize visa cancellation for Iranian and Russian group tours,” Ali-Asghar Mounesan said, CHTN reported.

He made the remarks at a meeting with representatives of the private sector active in tourism projects.

In December, Mounesan announced that Tehran was considering to allow Russian tourists to visa-free entry into the country to boost tourism after it granted the same privilege for some other nationals including Chinese and Omani passport holders.

In 2017, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin inked a preliminary visa-free agreement for certain tourist groups during their meeting in Moscow.

Based on the agreement tour groups of 5 to 50 people heading to [easternmost parts of] Russia from Iran or vice versa are granted a visa-free stay of up to 15 days.

MITT is the largest B2B travel & tourism trade show in Russia, attracting representatives of the tourism industry from Russia, regions and all over the world.

According to organizers, a total of 22,289 travel industry professionals visited MITT in 2019. The participants ranged from the representatives of tour operators, travel agents to various other companies involved in the travel industry such as airlines, transport companies, hotels, and IT businesses.

AFM/MG