Tanzanians can now travel to Iran without Visas. But is anybody really interested?

Tanzanians will now be able to travel to Iran without Visa, reports from Tehran have just confirmed.

Iranian Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Ezzatollah Zarghami revealed in an official statement that his country’s Cabinet has decided to unilaterally cancel visa requirements for visitors from Tanzania, India and several other countries.

In total, Iran has just decided to waive visa requirements for 33 countries, Tanzania included.

However, it is still yet to be seen if the people in Tanzania will be willing to start traveling to Iran for one reason or another.

Iran has always been seen as a war-torn country with religious fanatism. Not exactly what most people will consider in their travel buckets.

All the same, according to the Iranian Minister Zarghami, the decision is aimed at boosting tourism arrivals and attracting more visitors from countries around the world.

He said efforts to boost tourism can neutralize Iran-phobia campaigns.

Recently Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam have waived visa requirements for visitors from India.

It seems many tourism oriented countries are trying to get into good books with other states which feature growing travel industries.

India has one of the fastest growing markets for outbound tourism India with a recent McKinsey analysis showing 13 million outbound Indian tourists in 2022.

Tanzania on the other hand is one of the only two African countries (the other being Ethiopia) which has recorded significant growth in tourism after the pandemic.

Meanwhile the 33 countries that Iran has approved for the country’s new visa-waiver programme include, Tanzania, India, Russia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Others are Tajikistan, Tunisia, Mauritania, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, Seychelles, Indonesia, Darussalam, Japan, Singapore, Cambodia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brazil, Peru, Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia and Belarus.

Earlier, Iran had visa waiver programs for visitors from Turkiye, Republic of Azerbaijan, Oman, China, Armenia, Lebanon and Syria.

According to the latest statistics, the number of foreign arrivals in Tehran reached 4.4 million during the first eight months of the current Iranian year which started on March 21.

Apparently, that is an increase of 48.5 percent in visitors’ traffic, compared to the same period last year.