Financial Tribune - A total of 4,704,509 Iranians left the country for foreign destinations during the first seven months of the current Iranian year (March 21-Oct. 22), indicating an 11% decline compared with the same period of last year.

According to Vali Teymouri, deputy head of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, Iraq, Turkey, the UAE, Georgia, Germany, Qatar and Saudi Arabia were the top destinations for Iranians during the period in a descending order.

As many as 10,524,952 Iranians travelled abroad during last year (March 2017-18), ISNA quoted Teymouri as saying.

A total of 4,739,413 foreigners travelled to Iran during the same seven months, registering a 56% growth compared with the same period of last year.

As such, the number of visitors to Iran outweighed the number of departures by 34,904 people during the period.