Every year, millions of pilgrims visit Mashad

The Governor of Khorasan Razavi Province, Alireze Rashidian, confirmed the construction of 100 rest stops on roads connecting the country’s borders to the holy city of Mashhad.

This is being done with the help of Astan Quds Razavi, Cultural Heritage Organization, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, the Ministry of Roads and Urbanization, and related provinces in order to provide better services to pilgrims.

He also announced the reconstruction and renovation of fourteen historical and cultural sites in the vicinity of the Shrine of Imam Reza with the help of the Ministry of Roads and Urbanization and the Cultural Heritage Organization which will be carried out this year.

On average 25 million pilgrims visit Mashhad annually. Almost a third of these travel via Mashhad airport. According to Mr. Rashidian, almost two million foreign pilgrims visited the holy city of Mashhad in 1393 (March 2014-15). The majority of foreign visitors to Mashhad are from: Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Pakistan, Bahrain and India.

The President of the Hoteliers Association of Khorasan Razavi, Mohammad Ghanei, believes that half of the hotels in Iran are located in this city.

“the number of hotels has more than doubled and approximately 200 new hotels are currently under construction. The average investment in the constructed hotels is 750 billion IRR ($23m) and their average rates are 30% cheaper than anywhere else in the country”, says Mr Ghaeni, “the majority of these hotels are three-star hotels and they have a total capacity of accommodation for 50,000 people”.

Since the 1990s, when Arab pilgrims started to travel to Mashhad, apartment hotels have become popular in the Mashhad. The Mashhad Chamber of Commerce indicated that by 2014, 300 apartment hotels had been constructed in Mashhad.