Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 4 / Trend A.Akhundov /
The Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry has set the goal of making Istanbul the most visited city by the citizens of Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia, Greece, Romania, Syria and Iraq, Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Ertugrul Gunay said in an interview with Trend.
Gunay said the promotion of activities in these countries and a shopping festival in Istanbul, which will be held for the first time from March 18 to April 26, will help to achieve this goal.
"Through the festival, Istanbul will become a new center of commerce and entertainment, and travel expenses will grow by five times over five years. Retail sales in 2011 will amount to $2 billion and reach $10 billion in 2023, " Gunay said.
According to him, half of the top 10 countries with the largest number of tourists visiting Turkey fell to neighboring countries, while Iran and Russia are in the top four.
"Turkey has made a great leap in tourism in recent years," he added.
Gunay said Azerbaijan and Turkey cooperate in tourism investment and tourism personnel training.
"Every year, an educational program on various branches of the Azerbaijani tourism sector is prepared in cooperation with the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry," he added.
He noted that the relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan in the field of tourism were established upon the signing of an agreement on tourism cooperation in 1992.
Based on the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry's data, Turkey was visited by 486,381 Azerbaijani citizens in 2010.
The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) reported that in 2010, 441,468 Azerbaijani citizens visited Turkey, 112,055 of them visited the country to meet with family and friends, 100,167 people - travel and leisure, 44,269 people - trade, 30,058 people - work (conferences, meetings, etc.) 12,822 people - treatment, 7,069 people - education, 1,556 people - religious purposes, 685 people - transit and 132,788 people - for other purposes.