CULTURE
Azerbaijani President: We have quite a large and attractive tourism potential
Baku, July 31 (AZERTAC). “Our country has quite a large and attractive tourism potential. On the one hand, Azerbaijan has nine climatic zones, beautiful and picturesque nature, rich flora and fauna, cultural heritage, and historical monuments. On the other hand, the large-scale measures undertaken in recent years to ensure rapid social and economic development have renovated all fields of public life and created an infrastructure of services, transport, communications, and public utilities that make for favorable conditions to make tourism become an economic priority,” President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev told the Business Year magazine.
“The State Program on the Development of Tourism for 2010-2014 is being implemented in Azerbaijan. Our main objective is to bring the national tourism sector in line with world standards by 2014. In the light of all these tasks, 2011 was declared the “Year of Tourism” in Azerbaijan.”
“Modern hotels are being opened in large cities of the country to receive foreign guests. The system of tourism services is forming rapidly in all the regions. Almost 100 hotels were operational in 2003. However, their numbers exceeded 500 in 2010. For the time being, the construction of 35 new hotels is underway. By the end of 2011, six five-star hotels will be commissioned. The world-class Shahdag Winter-Summer Tourism Complex is of particular importance, being among the largest projects in the field of tourism,” the President said.