The Association of Air Transport and Tourist Agencies of Iran revealed that the tourism sector in Iran was badly hit in the first week of the downing of the Ukrainian plane which killed all 176 people on board.
The Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA), on Saturday, reported on statistics of foreign tourists showing a dramatic decline at a time Iran suffers from great economic pressures as a result of US sanctions.
More so, Germany’s Lufthansa on Friday said that flights to Tehran were suspended until March 28, extending a ban of flights over Iran after a Ukrainian airliner was shot down last week.
Lufthansa, the only major European carrier flying to Iran since 2018, had initially suspended flights until the end of January. The company’s Austrian Airlines business is also adhering to the suspension, it said.
All 176 passengers and crew aboard the Ukraine International Airlines plane were killed after being shot down by a missile soon after take-off from Tehran.
The head of the Union of Tourism and Aviation Offices Hurmatullah Rafaei said that most tourist trips from western countries that were going to visit Iran were canceled after the Ukrainian plane crashed in Tehran.
According to the Iranian official, flights from the US and Canada were canceled by 100 %, while flights from Australia and its neighbors decreased by 80%, and European flights, as well as Asian flights, fell by 60 %.
Rafaei said that 70% of all tourist trips have applied for cancellation, predicting a further decline in tourism in the next few days.
Iran celebrates Nowruz on March 21. The southern regions of Iran during the months of March and April are the most attractive to foreign tourism.
This is the second blow that strikes Iran in terms of a drop in aviation rates. Several European companies, such as Air France and British Airways had suspended their flights following the re-imposition of US sanctions on Iran in 2018.
