Azerbaijan, Baku, Aug. 15 / Trend T. Hajiyev /
A list of countries considered to the most important for Azerbaijan's tourism market has been announced.
Azerbaijan is interested in attracting tourists from neighboring and European countries, the chief of the Board of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Firudin Gurbanov, said in an interview with the official website of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party.
Gurbanov said that the tourist markets of the U.S, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and the Pacific Basin are potential for us.
The Ministry representative further said that the current priority is to familiarize the world with Azerbaijan as a tourist-friendly country, to be commercializing and advertising Azerbaijani brands of tourism, expanding information on activities, creating regional touristic-cultural routes in the context of international programs, and expanding international relations.
"Our ministry is involved in about 20 exhibitions in leading world countries, to promote the annual tourism potential of our country ", Gurbanov said.
"Moreover, about 50 types of advertising material are published in nine languages. They are distributed to visitors at traditional tourism festivals which occur in Istanbul, Berlin, Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo, Milan, London, Kuwait, Kiev, Tbilisi, Tashkent, and other cities. The website www.azerbaijan.tourism.az has been created to get acquainted with Azerbaijan's tourism potential".
Gurbanov added that Azerbaijan's tourism potential is constantly advertised on TV channels such as "EuroNews", "Travel Channel", "CNN", "National Geographic", "BBC", and "CNBC".
The Azerbaijan International Exhibition "Tourism and Travel" (AITF) and the National Domestic Tourism Exhibition are held in Baku every year in April.
Info-tours are often organized for media representatives and travel agencies of Germany, Austria, Turkey, Japan, Egypt, Kuwait, Morocco, Greece and other countries, Gurbanov said.
According to President Aliyev's decree, 2011 has been declared the Year of Tourism in Azerbaijan.