Wave of Iranian tourist hits road and social media

TEHRAN — A travel frenzy is gripping young Iranians, who are inspiring each other through social media to overcome traditional constraints and expand their horizons.

The exploits of young Iranian travelers, hitchhiking and backpacking their way around the globe, have become immensely popular on Instagra m and Telegram, the most widely used apps in Iran, with some gathering more than 200,000 followers.

Sara Louee, 31, grew up thinking that holidays were a family trip to the northern coasts of Iran.

But two years ago, she met a group of foreigners through the website couchsurfing.com and joined them as they hitchhiked to the ancient city of Yazd.

She was unprepared: “I had absolutely no equipment. I was wearing flimsy girlie shoes and had borrowed a backpack from a friend,” she said.

But her mind was opened to a world of possibility and she was soon saving for a 40-day trip around Europe, even if it meant battling with her conservative-minded parents.

“My family didn’t accept it easily or overnight. I went through a lot of pain. But I gradually proved I could do it with shorter trips and gained their trust,” said Louee, who now blogs regularly about her travels.

Other young Iranians, particularly women, say they had been taught that traveling alone was dangerous.

“When I told people I stayed in a hostel in Europe, Iranians would be shocked and say ‘You mean there were strangers in your room?! Didn’t they do anything to you?’” said Mahzad Elyassi, another travel blogger.

She only heard about hitchhiking for the first time in 2015 but has since traveled to all 32 of Iran’s provinces and 20 countries.

“We’ve proven that Iran is really safe for such trips. It’s become a trend.

“One woman said she used my Instagram page to convince her husband, saying: ‘If she can do it alone, so can we.’”

Last year, Iran recorded 9.2 million departures, a 38.5-percent increase on the previous year and almost double the numbers a decade ago.

The trend has been helped by President Hassan Rouhani, who came to power in 2013 promising to improve Iran’s relations with the world.

Tech support

Technology has also been crucial.

“When I started, Google Maps didn’t exist. People couldn’t just easily travel and share their experiences,” said Reza Pakravan, 43, one of Iran’s best-known travelers after he broke the world record for crossing the Sahara on a bike.

Alireza Zafari, 38, has spent two years on the “herculean task” of documenting the whole of Iran for travelers, a project he expects will take another eight years to complete.

“The reason behind the travel wave is that people have become aware of the world, and technology gives them easy access to the information they need,” Zafari said.