The Azerbaijani delegation's participation in the annual World Travel & Tourism Council Summit in Las Vegas is stipulated by a desire to declare itself as a country with a developing tourism market, Azerbaijani Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfaz Garayev said in Las Vegas today.
The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) was founded in 1990. It aims to ensure the effective participation of the tourism industry in the global economy, to conduct a dialogue with the authorities and help to eliminate the barriers hampering to develop the sector. The co-founder of the Council is the UN World Tourism Organization. Azerbaijan joined it in 2001. The current year in the republic has been declared as the Year of Tourism. The world's leading companies have already announced about the plans to open the hotels in Azerbaijan, he said.
In an interview with Itar-Tass, he thought it early to talk about the complete elimination of the visa, customs and other regulations, stated by the WTTC. "We can not talk about the abolition, as it will lead either to hypertrophy or degeneration of entire countries and spaces," he said. He proposes to move in a compromise way - toward easing the visa regime, the gradual limitation of customs duties. It meets the objectives of facilitating the contacts between people. It is an objective requirement of time. I think that it is necessary to advance in this direction."
Garayev called the WTTC summit "very useful" activities as the tourism sector mainly plays the role of catalyst to change the perception of the world economic processes. Minister expressed hope for possible holding the forum in Russia or Azerbaijan in future.