Tourism

Tourism

Argentinean tourism minister: â€œOur country does not consist only from tango, football, Maradona and Messiâ€ - PHOTO

Argentinean tourism minister: â€œOur country does not consist only from tango, football, Maradona and Messiâ€ - <font color=red>PHOTO</font>

11 February 2012 10:51 (UTC +04:00)

â€œThough Argentina is famous mostly for football in the world, the country has tourism opportunities too. Our country does not consist only from tango, football, Maradona and Messiâ€, said Meyer.

The minister noted that 6 mln tourists visited Argentina in 2011, the country got $5.4 bn income from foreign tourism. According to statistics, 36% of the tourists visiting the country came from South America. The rest falls on share of Europe, USA and other countries. Last year, 6.5 mln tourists left Argentina for other countries as tourist. 42 mln people took part in domestic tourism. Argentinean economy grew by more than 10 times during 2004-2010. $8.4 bn was invested to the infrastructure during these years.

The presentation about tourism opportunities of Argentina showed that there were a lot of national parks in the country. Glaciers National Park is protected by UNESCO. There are icebergs, sharks and seals here. ValdÃ©s Peninsula maybe especially interesting for nature lovers. It is possible to watch penguins here.

It was noted that though the distance between Azerbaijan and Argentina is big, there is no problem in flights. Flights are operated to Argentina from more than 100 cities of the world. Azerbaijanis may fly to Buenos Aires through Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines.

The representatives of the tourism companies complained of the complex visa procedure for the tourists traveling to Argentina. The Azerbaijani tourists are obliged to get visas for Argentina from the embassy of Argentina in Turkey. The representatives from Argentina promised to help facilitation of the process and underlined that they will do their best so that Argentina opens embassy in Azerbaijan.

Department chief of Tourism Ministry of Argentina Enrico Namurabi said Argentina is interested in establishing and strengthening relations with the Islamic countries.
â€œThe people of these countries have contributed to the establishment of Argentina,â€ he said.

Asked what products will be interesting in Argentina for the Azerbaijani tourists, the guest advised to use Turkeyâ€™s practice.
â€œTurkey is one of our friends. The trade turnover between Argentina and Turkey has recently reached $1 billion,â€ he said.