Speaking with Iranian Ambassador to Damascus Mehdi Sobhani on Thursday, Syria’s Minister of Tourism Mohammad Rami Radwan Martini said that his country is vehemently interested in boosting tourism travels to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Emphasizing the importance and role of tourism sector in strengthening relations between nations, he said that one of the programs of Syrian Tourism Ministry is to encourage Syrian citizens to travel to Iran.

Welcoming expansion of bilateral relations in the tourism sector, the Syrian minister pointed to increase pilgrimage and tourism activities between the two countries and said, “Iran’s tourism destinations should be increasingly introduced to Syrian citizens to witness an increase in travel between Iran and Syria in the future.”

Iran is one of the countries that has regular direct flights with Syria, he said, adding that the issue of direct flights is one of the important necessities for the development of tourism between the two countries, so that the two countries must take advantage of this cooperation optimally to increase bilateral travels.

Iranian envoy to Syria, for his part, emphasized the need for using extant capabilities and capacities to resume travel of Iranian pilgrims to Syria and announced Tehran’s readiness to send pilgrims to visit holy shrines of Syria.

Mehdi Sobhani Iranian Ambassador to Damascus also expressed hope that Syria would witness presence of Iranian pilgrims in Damascus in very near future.