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Azerbaijan holds Internal Tourism Conference - UPDATED

Azerbaijan holds Internal Tourism Conference -<font color=red> UPDATED </font>

27 September 2008 13:14 (UTC +04:00)

Teymur Mehdiyev, the Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism, said that work in under way on the identification of tourism sites and establishment of tourism infrastructure in mountainous areas.
Aydin Ismiyev, Officer of the Ministry, added that there are 337 hotels and inns in the country, 71 of which are located in Baku. According to him, 230 hotels have been granted licenses.
According to him, there are 232 travel agencies, 39 of which were opened in January-June.
â€œ782 839 tourists arrived in Azerbaijan in the first half of this year, up 34.2% on the same period last year. $94.5 million was generated at the tourism sites during this period,â€ he noted.
He noted tourist services come short of international standards despite the recent development of the tourism business in Azerbaijan.
â€œThis is mostly related to the fact that the human resources are not highly qualified. There is hope for the improvement of services in a few years,â€ he underlined.
With the participation of Abulfaz Garayev, Minister of Culture and Tourism, Qala Travel and Karbminvod were granted licenses for tourism business and Goy Gurshagi was given a license for providing hotel business Shamakhi. Liversite was granted a certificate of four-start hotel.
Besides, awards presentation was held at the end of the conference.
Excelsior Hotel was given the Best 5-Star Hotel Award, Gandja Inn was presented the Best 3-Star Hotel Award and Meridian was issued the Best-Boutique Hotel Award.
Guba and Lenkeran were the best areas to present the countryâ€™s tourism potential.