Azerbaijani Culture and Tourism Minister: Azervbaijan's tourism market is open

It is planned to carry out considerable work, given the large potential for improving Azerbaijan's tourism industry under the State Tourism Development Program for 2010-2014, Culture and Tourism Minister Abulfaz Garayev said.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree to approve State Tourism Development Program for 2010-2014 Apr.6.

"We can not say that we are dissatisfied with the current state of the country's tourism, but there are still areas that should be developed," Garayev added.

According to Garayev, Azerbaijan's tourism market is open and free from all obstacles.

"About 25- 50 hotels and inns are built in the country every year. Today, construction of 50 hotels is underway. The number of tourist facilities in Azerbaijan has increased three times," he said.

Since 2001-2002, Azerbaijan has observed serious interest in the field of tourism development.

"If in that period, there were a total of 32 travel companies, then today their number has risen to 123.

Today, the country issued about 300 licenses for the hotel business. The documents of 20 hotels are under consideration. Previously, 50 appeals have been rejected due to not compliance with the requirements.

"The growing number of hotels in Azerbaijan, both local and world-renowned hotel networks, is an indicator of the attractiveness of the Azerbaijani market" Garayev said.

Garayev noted that in 2010, Azerbaijan will have the first 300 graduates of the Azerbaijan Tourism Institute. Each of them has already decided on their workplace.

"Presence of professionals in the field of tourism in Azerbaijan is one of the priorities in the implementation of state programs," he added.

Under the state program, the ministry has established a working group that developed the initial version of the bill "On Tourism", since is difficult to implement items of the state program under the current law, Garayev said. . The bill will be submitted to the parliament in the near future.

"We will try to keep this bill on the agenda and came into force from next year," Garayev added.


/Trend/