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Dec 11, 2019 (newstodate): Defying political tensions and economic sanctions, Iran is keen to develop its tourism industry in 2020.
   The country's Ministry of Tourism has analyzed markets and identified four target groups comprising 30 countries.
   Target group 4 comprises Denmark and Sweden, together with UK, Switzerland, Austria, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Georgia, Belgium, and Lebanon, and a plan seeks to meet the specific needs of tourists from each of the countries in the four target groups.
   After selecting the target countries, the Tourism Ministry’s Marketing and Advertisement Bureau plans to supply products and services to tourists from these source countries based on their needs and tastes.
   According to the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism, a total of 5,890,952 tourists visited Iran during the first seven months of the current Iranian year, March 21-Oct 22, 2019, which is a growth by 24 percent, y-o-y, and some 7.8 million tourists visited Iran in the last Iranian year ending March 20, 2019, corresponding to a growth by 52.5 percent, y-o-y.
   Iran has been ranked first worldwide in terms of price competitiveness in the World Economic Forum's "The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2019", landing with a score of 6.7 on a 1-7 scale.