Baku, 15 February 2008 – Tourism development can contribute to creating economic opportunities and improving people's quality of life. The Government committed itself to support tourism as a tool for income generation, rural development, and creating public-private partnerships. With this in mind, in 2004 the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Azerbaijan in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) launched a project aimed at reducing poverty in Azerbaijan through facilitating effective development of domestic tourism.

With the hotels, infrastructure, tourism services and trained guides being put in place, there is also a need to promote the country and its tourism opportunities to attract tourists – the major sources of income. This is exactly the purpose of the Tourism portal launched by the Ministry and UNDP in today’s joint event.

“The website has the potential of being online ambassador for Azerbaijan. It is an open window for the world to discover Azerbaijan and convince tourists to travel to the country” said UNDP Resident Representative Bruno Pouezat in his welcoming remarks at the launch of the portal.
 
The portal (www.tourism.az) provides information on the country, its ancient history, fascinating nature and available tourism infrastructure and services. In particular, it offers information on all the hotels and recreational areas across the country, tourist routes, their maps and infrastructure. Tourists will have the opportunity to learn about weather, currency rates, car rent and schedules of land, air, rail and sea transport. The regional Tourism Information Centers (TIC) will be linked to the portal and have the chance to upload domestic tourism news from the region.

The portal created by the Tourism Development Project is only a part of the project. In general, the project, which is going through its second phase, supports to raise academic standards of national tourism education system, to enhance tourism services, and to facilitate the employment opportunities. In particular, it aims to provide support to the newly established Azerbaijan Tourism Institute (ATI) in enhancing tourism education, facilitate effective functioning of the regional TICs already opened within the first phase of the project (Baku, Shamahi, Xacmaz, Sheki, Lankaran and Ganja) and those to be established in Guba, Zaqatala, Nakhchivan, Heydar Aliyev Airport and the village of Gala (Baku).

Stressing that tourism sector cannot provide effective services in the modern world without application of high technologies Minister of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mr. Abulfas Garayev highly appreciated UNDP support in creating the tourism portal and  the widening network of Tourism Information Centers. He said it was crucial to constantly update the information on the portal to keep up attracting tourists. Speaking on the progress in the development of the country’s tourism sector, the Minister reminded that “at the time Azerbaijan was granted membership in the World Tourism Organization back in 2001, the country would participate in only one or two international tourism exhibitions a year. Today, we participate in up to 25 international exhibitions a year”.