The 8th Meeting of the Ministers in Charge of Tourism of the Organization of Turkic States convened on 11 October 2023 in the city of Turkistan, Kazakhstan.

The meeting was hosted by Mr. Yerzhan Yerkinbayev, Vice Minister of Tourism and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan, moderated by Mr. Mirvokhid Azimov, Deputy Secretary General of the Organization of Turkic States, and attended by the High-Level Representatives of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Türkiye, the Republic of Uzbekistan and Hungary.

At the meeting, Parties discussed issues related to increasing the number of flights among the Member and Observer States, revealing the potential of the Silk Road Tourism, implementation of the “Turkic World Tourism Capital” and Tabarruk Ziyarat projects, launch of the new website namely www.turkicsilkroad.com, training programs and other issues related to the tourism cooperation agenda within the OTS.

Deputy Secretary General Mirvokhid Azimov briefed the Parties on the latest developments in regard to the tourism cooperation among the Member and Observer States and provided information on the new projects to be realized in the upcoming period.

Heads of delegations shared with the participants the bilateral and multilateral aspects of the tourism cooperation within the Turkic World, underlined the importance of increasing tourist mobility and number of flights with each other and raised the prospective plans and projects to be carried out under the umbrella of the OTS.

At the meeting, upon the proposal of the Kazakh side, parties declared city of Turkistan as the “Turkic World Tourism Capital” for the year 2024 and endorsed the Roadmap which includes various conferences, festivals and other activities to be organized next year in Turkistan.

Parties also agreed to hold the 9th Ministerial Meeting on Tourism of the Organization of Turkic States in Kyrgyzstan in 2024.