Azerbaijan, Baku / corr Trend S.Agayeva / Abulfaz Garayev, the Azerbaijani Minister for Culture and Tourism, stated at the international conference on the Role of Tourism in Economy of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) in Baku on 21 June that Islamic countries should unit their efforts in the protection of their historical and cultural monuments. Azerbaijan mostly suffered from military conflict with Armenia, as a result of which all historical and cultural monuments were destroyed in Armenian-occupied areas.
Garayev also stated that Azerbaijan has selected tourism as its priority sector in the non-oil sector of the economy. The number of tourists visiting Azerbaijan is increasing year by year, new hotels and tourist facilities are being built.
The minister noted that Azerbaijan, a chairman of the OIC Council of Tourism Ministers, carries out tremendous work in the area of tourist development in OIC member-countries.
The current event is the next stage in the implementation of the designed project.
A letter by the OIC Secretary General, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, was read out at the conference with the participation of delegates from 23 member-countries.