New Delhi: The Iran Embassy has announced that Indian tourists will not require any visa to visit Iran.
Iran has started visa free entry for Indians:
Visa free entry in Iran started from 4th February. Also, the Iranian Embassy has made this announcement with some conditions. Only those Indians who want to go to Iran for tourism will get visa free entry in Iran. The maximum duration of this visa will be 15 days and it cannot be extended and visa free entry can be done only once in 6 months. Also, the Embassy has clarified that visa free entry will be applicable only to those Indian citizens who come to Iran by air.
In December, Iran started a visa-free program for 33 countries including India. These include countries like UAE, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia.
The Embassy of Iran in India has issued a statement saying that if any Indian wants to visit Iran more than once in six months or needs another type of visa, then he will have to obtain a visa from the embassy.
Last month, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar visited Iran, where he met his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdullahian. During this, many bilateral and regional issues were discussed between the two foreign ministers.
There has been a tremendous increase in the number of Indian tourists going to Iran in the year 2023, 31 thousand Indians went to Iran in the first six months of the year 2023, which is 25 percent more than the year 2022.
According to the World Tourism Organization in Iran in the year 2023, there was a 315 percent increase in the number of foreign tourists in Iran in the year 2022 compared to the previous year.
Statistics show that in the year 2022, 41 lakh tourists had reached Iran, whereas in the year 2021, only 9.9 lakh tourists had gone to Iran.
Moslem Shojaee, head of the Foreign Tourism Marketing and Development Office of Iran’s Tourism Ministry, said in December that there has been a ‘significant increase’ in the number of tourists coming from India in the year 2023.
According to Shojaee, most of the foreigners who come to Iran come for tourism, business, medical treatment and pilgrimage.
Earlier in November last year, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had announced that Indian citizens can come to Malaysia without visa from December 1 and stay for 30 days.
In the total population of Malaysia, 9% are citizens of Indian origin.
According to Malaysian government data, 2.83 lakh tourists came from India between January and June last year. During the same period in 2019, 3.54 lakh tourists came to Malaysia from India.
Thailand and Sri Lanka have also provided visa free entry facility to Indians to promote tourism.