Azerbaijan, Baku, June 24 / Trend U. Ismayilova /
The Azerbaijani Association of Travel Agencies held its first general meeting with the association of hotels, Chairman of Travel Agencies Nahid Bagirov said.
"During the meeting a decision was made to eliminate the association of hotels and its unification with the Azerbaijani Association of Tourism ", Bagirov said. Hotel Association was established in December 2006.
He said the decision was taken at the meeting with participation of representatives of the two organizations, which have jointly agreed to merge for further cooperation in the development of domestic tourism, as well as solutions to existing problems of both tour companies, and representatives of hotel business.
The joint cooperation between the two associations will give a serious impetus for the effective development of tourism in Azerbaijan", Bagirov said.
He said that today members of the association are 75 tourism companies. In future the number of members of the association will be increased due to the existing hotels.
The Azerbaijani Association of Travel Agencies was created with the assistance of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture in January 2009. The board includes heads of Improtex Travel, Caspian Travel, Pasha Travel, Silkway Travel, Euroturizm.
The main activities of the association is to protect the interests of tourism companies, develop bills, recommendations and regulations, help in establishing a national travel company, develop a plan to conduct training and workshops for market participants, create conditions for potential advertising and propaganda of the Azerbaijani tourism in international exhibitions, develop domestic tourism and present tourism products on the world market.
The objective of this organization also includes the development and implementation of congress tourism, aid in developing professional training in management and services, creation of adequate taxation and regulation of tourism, promoting the development of standardization, certification and licensing; effective cooperation with international tourism companies, the creation of an official organ, the development of services in the field of legal advice, and cooperation in the field of protection of the rights of tourism companies in the development of legal framework.