Iran starts issuing rial debit cards for tourists

The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) said in a statement on Sunday that it had authorized a bank to purchase hard currency from non-resident individuals and tourists and give them the equivalent in rial in the form of debit cards.

The CBI said the rate applied to currency purchases from tourists will be the prices discovered in daily trade in Iran’s Center for Exchange of Currency and Gold.

The rate was 1.01 million rials per US dollar on Sunday. That comes as the greenback was sold for 1.07 million rials in the free market in Tehran on the same day.

However, many tourists are forced to pay extra charges for changing their currencies in Iran as they have no option but to use cash for their routine transactions in the country.

The CBI said that the new measure will create more transparency in the currency market and will allow the government to have better control over currency resources arriving in the country.

It said that tourists visiting Iran will benefit from the new scheme, while it will also allow authorities to expand payment infrastructures in the country’s tourism industry.

The CBI had announced general regulations for issuing debit cards for tourists in April, months after the government approved the measure as part of its policies to attract more tourists into the country.

Most of the tourists visiting Iran are pilgrims or patients needing advanced treatment. Many of them come from Iraq or other neighboring countries.  

Iraq has plans to attract some five million Iraqi tourists in 2026 amid efforts to significantly increase its tourism industry revenues./isna