Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

Azerbaijan has made significant progress in tourism development.

This was stated by Secretary-General of the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Taleb Rifai at the 57th meeting of the organization's Commission for Europe and Seminar on Developing Effective Tourism Clusters on April 3.

"During the meeting with the Azerbaijani president back in 2012, I primarily asked him to simplify entry into the country and to increase the number of flights, because these elements are the backbone of tourists' influx," he said.

"Azerbaijan has already fulfilled its obligation to simplify entry into the country and to issue electronic visas, now it needs to expand its direct flights. Azerbaijani president said he will go ahead with the relevant measures."

Azerbaijan's Culture and Tourism Minister Abulfas Garayev, in turn, said the country attaches great importance to the development of tourism, and the agency is currently focused on taking long steps in two directions.

"The first direction is the development of winter tourism, particularly in Shahdagh summer and winter tourism complex, and the second direction is the fulfillment of twinning-improvement project of the tourism management," he said.

The minister also added that experts from Latvia and Austria, which won the tender for the project, now are conducting an assessment of the management system, and preparing recommendations to improve the management to ensure the quality of tourism development.

Then, UNWTO and Azerbaijan's Tourism Association (AzTa) signed an agreement on accession of Azerbaijan to the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism.

The agreement was signed by Taleb Rifai and Head of AzTa Nahid Bagirov.

Abulfaz Garayev said agreement and adherence to the Code imposes obligations on local tourism companies, which must be met.

Rifai, in turn, said that the code of ethics has been signed by 14 countries - members of the organization in 2011, but then 247 tourist associations from 34 countries of the world joined the Code.

"The Code imposes three major commitments on its members: first, countries that joined the Code, shall comply with all its terms and conditions; second, the country must extend the principles of the Code among all participants of the tourism industry and third, it is necessary to report on the practical application of the Code," Rifai said.

AzTa's Nahid Bagirov, in turn, said application of the code will not only be an impetus for improving the quality of tourism services in the country, but also will help to integrate into the global tourism community.