American Tourists Interested in Visiting Iran despite Warnings

Last week, the US State Department once again warned the American citizens against visiting Iran. Despite the warning, Head of Iranian Tour Operators’ Society, Ebrahim Pourfaraj, says the flow of American tourist to Iran has not stopped.

“Iran’s Foreign Ministry continues to issue visas for American tourists,” he added.

Pourfaraj went on saying that despite the US government’s warnings, the number of American tourists who visited Iran this year is not lower than that of the previous year.

Earlier, the US government decided to impose ban on the Iranians travelling to the US on the one hand and warned the American citizens against traveling to Iran.

In an interview with the Hamshahri newspaper, Maricar Donato, an American tour guide who has travelled to Iran from Washington, said Iran is a safe country.

“Iranians give a warm welcome to foreign tourists including Americans,” she said. Donato also called on the foreign tourists to not take seriously the clichés about Iran in the western media and visit the country themselves.

Paula Thomson, another American tour guide from New York who was visiting Iran for the first time, also told Hamshahri that visiting the country is very exciting.

Unlike what the US government claims, she said, Iran is a safe country. According to Thomson, before visiting Iran, many Americans had called on him to take them to Iran as tourists.

Despite the American tour guides’ statements about security in Iran for foreign tourists as well as the Iranians’ hospitality, the US government has once again warned its citizens against travelling to Iran.

The head of Iranian Tour Operators’ Society said despite the US government’s threats and its measures which stand in stark violation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the American tourists continue to visit Iran and as things stand, Washington’s warnings have not hampered the flow of travels to Iran.

Pourfaraj went on saying that so far no tourism company has cancelled its requests to visit Iran. “Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Ministry has accepted the American tourists’ applications to visit Iran.”