Prior to the Second Ministerial Meeting in Tourism of the Turkic Council on 20 May 2015, the Fifth Meeting of Working Group on Tourism of the Turkic Council hosted by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Azerbaijan was kicked off on 18 May 2015 in Baku.

The meeting was opened with the address of Secretary General of the Turkic Council, Ambassador Ramil Hasanov. In his address, Ambassador Hasanov briefed the delegations about the steps to be taken in furthering cooperation in tourism among the Member States. He expressed his satisfaction about steps taken with regard to materialization of the Turkic Council Modern Silk Road Joint Tour Package that will be submitted to the agenda of Second Meeting of the Ministers in Charge of Tourism Affairs of the Member States for their adoption. He underlined the importance of involvement of the private sector in the realization of the Joint Tour Package and in this regard welcomed the participation of the private sector representatives in the meeting who will be signing the MoU among the umbrella institutions in tourism of the Member States before the Ministers in their Second Meeting in Baku.

After the opening ceremony, Pelin Musabay Baki, Project Director of the Turkic Council started to chair the meeting. During the meeting the recommendations to be submitted to the agenda of the Second Meeting of the Turkic Council Ministers in Tourism were determined. The second day of the Working Group Meeting will be held tomorrow.

Pelin Musabay Baki, Farid Damirli, Yedil Myrzakhanov and Yıldız Zuzakova, Project Directors of the Turkic Council have been in charge of the coordination of the said meeting.

Representatives of the state authorities responsible for tourism affairs, as well as the heads of the Tourism Associations of the Member States and representatives of local state authorities participated in the meeting.