Some 2.2 trillion rials ($52.3 million at the official exchange rate of 42,000 rials per dollar) have been allocated to support tourism-related projects across Qom province.
Of the figure, approximately 105 billion rials ($2.5 million) have been loaned to six tourism-related projects so far, provincial tourism chief Alireza Arjmandi said on Wednesday.
It would be impossible to complete such major projects without bank financing, he explained.
The country’s second-holiest city after Mashhad, Qom is home to both the magnificent shrine of Hazrat-e Masumeh (SA) and the major religious madrasas (schools).
Apart from sightseers and pilgrims who visit Qom to pay homage at the holy shrine, the city is also a top destination for Shiite scholars and students who come from across the world to learn Islamic studies at its madrasas and browse through eminent religious bookshops.
The city’s antiquity goes back to the Sassanid era (224 CE–651) and several historical mosques, mansions, and natural sceneries have been scattered across the city as well as towns and villages nearby.
Persian
