The private sector has invested 22 trillion rials (some $523 million at the official exchange rate of 42,000 rials per dollar) in the tourism sector of the northeastern province of North Khorasan during the first half of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21).
This investment has been put into 12 ongoing projects across the province, which are being carried out by the private sector, the provincial tourism chief has announced.
A greater volume of investments in the tourism industry is required to accomplish the efforts being made to present the province in a true and correct light to the international community, Ali Mostofian said on Monday.
Local travel insiders believe that traveling in North Khorasan is gaining momentum by degrees, creating lucrative opportunities for the tourism industry.
According to Lonely Planet, most foreign tourists pass straight through North Khorasan in transit between Mashhad and Gorgan, but if you have time to explore, it's worth diverting south from the capital, Bojnurd, towards Esfarayen, famed for its wrestling tournaments, the remarkable citadel of Belqays and the partly preserved stepped village of Roein some 20km north.
Persian
