Iran, Afghanistan Discuss Expansion of Tourism

Tourism officials in Iran and Afghanistan discussed the ways to improve tourism industry in the coronavirus and post-coronavirus eras. Iran’s Deputy Tourism Minister Vali Teymouri and his Afghan counterpart Mojgan Mostafavi exchanged views on the expansion of cooperation between the two countries in the tourism sector in a videoconference. Referring to the documents of previous cooperation, Teymouri called for the preparation of a draft of a new executive plan and stressed the importance of holding private sector BtoB meetings in the field of tourism between the two countries, IRNA wrote.

Teymouri highlighted the significance of promoting cooperation in the field of tourism education by holding training workshops. The two sides decided to exchange the list of agencies which have the necessary license from both sides to operate in the field of health tourism in order to solve the problems of tourists. Both sides put emphasis on reopening the borders and resuming tourism activities with health protocols in place. Teymouri also pointed to the importance of international cooperation between ECO and Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member countries as well as upcoming global tourism events in Iran such as the selection of Mazandaran Province and Sari city as ECO Tourism Capital in 2022 or choosing Ardebil as ECO tourism capital in 2023.

The Iranian tourism official also invited his counterpart to participate in Tehran Tourism Industries Exhibition which will be held in the upcoming months. A number of other issues such as the challenges of obtaining visas as well as the importance of transportation infrastructure, including the opening of the Khaf-Herat railway were also discussed during the virtual event. - Iran Daily