Newest luxury trip on Tehran-Moscow train
A luxury train company connecting world capitals plans to launch a tour service between Moscow and Tehran after running a successful first-ever adventure from Hungary to the Iranian capital.
Golden Eagle Luxury Trains will travel along the route of the Silk Road through Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, beginning in 2016, the company said on its website.
The British private travel agency operated its first excursion in October 2014, crossing the Balkans and the Bosphorus in Turkey on the way to Iran aboard deluxe railcars.
But it had to stop the service in late August this year after Turkey closed a section of the track in response to unrest in its Kurdish-populated east.
The trip costs from 13,595 pounds per person, including 14 nights on board in an en suite cabin, a night in a hotel in Moscow and two nights in Tehran, Golden Eagle said.
It offers full service, sightseeing programs and the beautiful scenery that rolls leisurely by for 6,012 miles.
The Iranian government plans to spend heavily to develop its tourism industry in an ambitious plan aimed at attracting 20 million foreign travelers and up to $30 billion in revenues a year by 2025.
The country is among the world’s top potential tourist destinations with a treasure trove of ancient sites, including 19 places listed on the UNESCO.
Tourism officials have said they expect a “tsunami” of foreign tourists when Western sanctions are lifted on the country.
Iran has started to issue 30-day visas for tourists from 58 countries upon arrival in its airports, local media reported on Wednesday.
Masoud Soltanifar, the head of Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, has said the government’s new policies and the easing of visa rules are opening the door for the return of foreign tourists.
“For tourism development in Iran, our organization has prepared a package for $25 billion of investment in 1,300 projects,” he said in September on the sidelines of a signing ceremony to hand over two hotels in Tehran to France’s AccorHotels.
Hotel groups from several countries are pushing to boost their portfolios in Iran which is being tagged as the most lucrative emerging hospitality development market.
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