Azerbaijan, Baku, May 13 / Trend U.Ismayilova /
The Azerbaijani Travel Agencies Association determined the directions to develop the hotel business under State Tourism Development Program for 2010-2014, Association's representative Muzaffar Agakarimov said.
"We intend to realize activities in three main areas for this end,"Agakarimov said.
The first activity will cover the improvement of the quality of services, which today are not at the proper level in the local hotels. The Association intends to promote the special training sessions and practical work to improve the quality of service of waiters and hotel registration, as well as to restore order in the corridors and rooms of hotels and others.
The second direction will be the promotions of national cuisine, as many local hotels, mainly in Baku do not adhere to these policies. Promotion of the national cuisine is a kind of national tourism potential.
The third line will be the development of the gift business in local hotels, as every foreign tourist should take a piece of Azerbaijan for its propaganda in his country. This method of propaganda is very effective, he said.
"About 25-50 hotels and inns are built in the country each year. Today, 50 hotels are being built. The number of tourist facilities in Azerbaijan has tripled," Culture and Tourism Minister Abulfaz Garayev said earlier.
Since 2001-2002, Azerbaijan has seen a serious interest in tourism development.
"If there were 32 travel agencies before, today their number has risen to 123," he said.
Roughly 300 licenses have been issued for the hotel business. Twenty more applications are under review.
"The growing number of hotels in Azerbaijan is an indicator of our market's attractiveness," Garayev said.
The association was established with Azerbaijani Tourism and Culture Ministry's assistance in 2009. Board members include heads of Improtex Travel, Caspian Travel, Pasha Travel, Silkway Travel and Euroturizm.
The association protects the interests of travel agencies, develops bills, recommendations and regulations, assists in establishing national travel companies, and develops plans to conduct trainings and seminars for market participants, creates conditions for advertising of Azerbaijani tourism at annual international exhibitions; develops domestic tourism and presents tourism products at the world market.
The association also tries to develop and introduce congressional tourism, help train specialists in the management and services spheres etc.
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