Fars Province in southern Iran hosted more than 69,000 foreign tourists in the Iranian month of Farvardin (March 21–April 20), registering a 59% increase compared with the same period of last year.

According to Mosayyeb Amiri, the head of the provincial office of Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, a majority of tourists were from France, followed by Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands, Donyayesafar.com reported.

The official said Persepolis had 15,338 visitors, while Naqsh-e Rostam, an ancient necropolis located about 12 km northwest of Persepolis, received 12,869 tourists. The tomb of renowned Persian poet, Hafez, was visited by 11,480 people.

A total of 10,021 tourists visited Pasargadae where the tomb of Cyrus the Great, founder of the Achaemenid Empire, is located.

Shiraz, the capital of Fars Province, is one of the oldest Iranian cities and home to four world heritage sites: Pasargadae and Persepolis, the Achaemenid Empire’s (550–330 BC) administrative and ceremonial capitals respectively; and Pasargadae and Eram Garden, two of Iran’s nine entries inscribed collectively as the Persian Garden. / Financial tribune /

A ceramic tilework bearing historical themes embellishes an exterior wall of the Takieh Mo’aven al-Molk, a distinctive Shia shrine, in western Iranian city of Kermanshah, April 25, 2017.

Completed in early 20th century, the Takieh  which is also a tourist destination boasts abundant tiles and stuccowork depicting a wide range of images, from Quranic scenes to pre-Islamic motifs including Shahnameh kings, edifices and local notables in 19th-century costumes. / Tehran times /

Some 20 million foreign tourists traveled to Iran from the summer of 2013 (when President Hassan Rouhani took office) up to the last Iranian year (ended March 20, 2016), the tourism deputy at Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization.

During a press conference on Sunday, Morteza Rahmani Movahed added that since the current administration came to power, 19.9 million tourists visited Iran and injected $32 billion into the domestic economy, the Persian daily Shahrvand reported.

Since collecting and reporting data are one of Iran’s weakest attributes, reporters quizzed the official on the source of the statistics.

“A globally accepted definition of an international tourist is one who spends at least 24 hours in a foreign country,” he said.

“According to the UN World Tourism Organization, every tourist in West Asia spends between $1,520 and $1,750, so we used an average ($1,650) to calculate our revenue.”

In other words, the statistics by ICHHTO are approximate figures based on UNWTO estimates.

Last year, some 5.5 million tourists visited Iran, constituting nearly a quarter of the country’s ambitious 2025 target of 20 million annual tourists./ Financial tribune /

German violinist Susanne Zapf will be holding a master class for a number of Iranian musicians in Tehran on April 29.

The master class is scheduled to be held at Tehran’s Da Theater House, the organizers announced in a press release on Tuesday.

Earlier in summer 2015, Zapf held a workshop in Tehran.

In addition, Zapf will accompany the Tehran-based ensemble Yarava in a concert at the Da Theater House early May.

Works by Iranian musicians Mehdi Jalali, Shahrokh Khajeh-Nuri and Farzia Fallah, and German composers Helmut Zapf and Sven-Ingo Koch will be performed at the concert.

Born in 1979 in Thuringia, Germany, Zapf particularly enjoys playing chamber music. In 2006, she founded a string quartet named “Sonar Quartet”, which specializes in playing contemporary music.

/ Tehran times /