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Qabil Ashirov

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Chairman of the Azerbaijan State Tourism Agency Fuad Naghiyev has discussed the prospects of tourism cooperation with the Chairperson of Saint Petersburg's Tourism Development Committee Sergey Korneev.

During the meeting, the sides exchanged views on the creation of joint tourism routes, investment opportunities, educational programs, and the development of relations among the tourism companies in line with the Roadmap for the Development of Tourism Between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation in 2024-2026.

The sides also touched upon the issues related to hosting marketing events in 2024, participating in exhibitions, organizing workshops and presentations, and opening a tourism representative office in Moscow to promote Azerbaijan's tourism potential in Russia.

Note that tourism between Azerbaijan and Russia has been steadily growing in recent years.

Speaking to Azernews on the issue, an expert in tourism, Rahman Quliyev, said that taking into account that there are restrictions on the access of Russian citizens to some countries against the background of the Russia-Ukraine war, of course, we should take advantage of this situation in the right way. We must provide our best service for the flow of Russian citizens to Azerbaijan to be regular and permanent.

"Russia is a strategically important state for Azerbaijan. Azerbaijanis and Russians are close peoples. There is also the language factor. It is very important for Russians that Russian tourists can comfortably visit Azerbaijan, and travel throughout the country. Also maintaining a high level of public order in Azerbaijan is important for Russian tourists. They continue their journey in Azerbaijan very comfortably. In this regard, we are expanding our relations with Russia. Of course, most of these relationships are bound with the economy, and tourism is another branch of it. Investors are among the tourists who come here. As I mentioned before, there were historical and friendly relations between Russia and Azerbaijanis. We, as Azerbaijan, have always demonstrated our neutral and humane position. Therefore, every tourist coming to Azerbaijan should be warmly welcomed and sent off as a guest of Azerbaijan," the expert said.

He pointed out that tourism is one of the important sectors in the economy. As a result of the far-seeing purposeful policy of the country's leadership, today Azerbaijan live and maintain friendly relations with neighboring countries, except for Armenia. He emphasized that it is as a result of the successful policy of the head of the country, Ilham Aliyev, that tourism, like other sectors of Azerbaijan's economy, is developing.

"Therefore, we must put all our efforts to attract Russian tourists to the country. Because we were not able to make Azerbaijan known in the world in terms of tourism before, we lived in war conditions. However, today our territorial integrity has been restored and our territories have been freed from occupation. We will also rebuild the tourism infrastructure in the liberated territories. Therefore, we should use the experience of our Russian colleagues and Russian friends. As we know, there are thermal sanatoriums like Kislavodsky in Russia, where we can gain more experience as well. We are moving towards improvement. As time is evolving, new equipment is invented. Therefore, the experience of our Russian colleagues in terms of thermal sanatoriums is important for us," the expert added.

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Qabil Ashirov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @g_Ashirov

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