Cruise route can be created in Caspian Sea
By Sara Israfilbayova
There are opportunities to use the potential of the Caspian Sea, which will revitalize tourism with riparian countries and establish close economic relations.
A very promising cruise route can be created in the Caspian Sea, which never existed in the history of tourism.
Head of the Federal Agency for Tourism of Russia Oleg Safonov, made the remarks speaking at the round table, entitled “Development of cooperation in the field of tourism”, held within the framework of the 9th Russian-Azerbaijani interregional forum.
Safonov went on to say that currently cruise tourism is developing in the world at a very fast pace.
“The world leaders of cruise tourism are interested in the appearance of new routes, I think that our joint task will be to attract the world's leading cruise tourism leaders,” he said.
According to him, Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Iran are very positive about this project.
Safonov noted that the 9th Russian-Azerbaijani interregional forum promotes active discussion and solution of these most important tasks.
In accordance with the signed memorandum, by the end of 2019 sea tours of the Russian cruise ship “Peter the Great” will begin in Baku. The Memorandum provides for joint activities to study and develop optimal routes for cruise passenger vessels, such as ports of the Black Sea - inland waterways of the Russian Federation - Astrakhan - ports of the Caspian Sea; Moscow-Baku; Astrakhan - Makhachkala - Baku; Baku - Anzali - Nousher - Turkmenbashi - Aktau - Astrakhan and others.
Tourism in Azerbaijan is developing rapidly, and to support the flow of foreign visitors, comprehensive activities are carried out.
Azerbaijan is engaged in the efforts to diversify the non-oil economy, and tourism industry is one of the promising sectors to contribute to the achievement of this ambitious goal.
Thanks to all these, the country has improved its tourism performance in the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017 released by experts of the World Economic Forum (WEF).
The tourism development strategy in Azerbaijan provides for effective use of the potential of all regions of the country in this area.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism has prepared a new draft law on tourism, aimed at improving the legal framework for the development of the tourism industry, and is currently in the process of coordinating with the relevant structures, and a strategy for tourism development in Azerbaijan for 2016-2025 has been developed.
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Sara Israfilbayova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Sara_999Is
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