TEHRAN - A group of travel marketers and tour operators form southern China and Hong Kong will soon launch a weeklong familiarization tour across Iran with the aim of acquainting with its tourist destinations.

The group, which is composed of managers of 15 travel agencies, is scheduled to visit Kashan, Isfahan, Shiraz, Yazd, Kerman and Tehran in the span of September 3 to 10, Mehr reported on Saturday. 

The fam tour is organized by Iran’s tourism ministry, which had conducted similar excursion program for other Chinese travel marketers earlier this year. 

Iran regards East Asia as a new market for its budding tourism industry as under the 2025 Tourism Vision Plan, the Islamic Republic is expecting to increase its foreign arrivals from 4.8 million in 2014 to 20 million. The country is expected to attract one million Chinese in the near future through the visa waiver program for Chinese tourists.

The Iranian government has recently waived visa requirements for the Chinese and Hongkongers aiming to attract more foreign tourists to the country; however, it is a unilateral measure i.e. Iranian tourists visiting China or Hong Kong still need visas.

Over 100 million Chinese tourists traveled abroad during 2017, with Japan, Hong Kong, the U.S., South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, and France among their top destinations.

AFM/MG