The 7th Meeting of the Ministers in Charge of Tourism of the Organization of Turkic States convened on 23-24 May 2022 in Shamakhi, Azerbaijan.
The meeting was hosted by H.E. Fuad Naghiyev, Chairman of the State Tourism Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan, moderated by H.E. Baghdad Amreyev, Secretary General of the Organization of Turkic States and attended by H.E. Аziz Abdukhakimov, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism and Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Uzbekistan, H.E. Yerzhan Yerkinbayev, the Vice Minister of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan, H.E. Nadir Alpaslan, Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey, Ms. Kyial Kenzhematova, Deputy Director of the Tourism of the Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Kyrgyz Republic, H.E. Nursakhet Shirimov, Deputy Minister of Culture of Turkmenistan and H.E. Viktor Szederkényi, Ambassador of Hungary to Azerbaijan.
Secretary General Baghdad Amreyev briefed the Parties on the latest activities of the Organization of Turkic States and underlining the tourism as one of the most important cooperation areas, which is not only creating revenue and job opportunities but also facilitate to bring the people even closer as well as increase people to people contact within the Turkic World and third countries.
Touching upon the tourism relations among the Member and Observer States, as well as undertakings and activities of the Secretariat, Secretary General communicated the new programs and projects namely establishing relations among the Associations of the Travel Agencies and other stakeholders, developing collaboration on the winter and golf tourism among the Member and Observers and constituting “Best Tourism Villages of the Turkic States” initiative to be realized in the upcoming period as well as ongoing projects such as Tabarruk Ziyarat and Turkic World Tourism Capital.
Heads of delegation shared with participants the latest developments in the field of tourism in their respective countries as well as the recovery plans in the post-pandemic period. They also underlined the importance of developing joint projects among the Member and Observer States to attract more tourists to the region.
Referring to tourism as one of the critical areas for economic development, Parties expressed their willingness to deepen relations among the Member and Observer States in this sphere and confirmed their readiness to increase tourist mobility and develop experience sharing programs with each other.
As the outcomes of the Ministerial Meeting, the Parties adopted the regulation on the “Turkic World Tourism Capital” which presents the general framework for the said program and agreed that Shamakhi will be the Turkic World Tourism Capital for the year 2023, in which various activities, conferences, festivals and other projects will be carried out.
Parties further agreed to establish an ad-hoc working group consists of Ministries of Tourism, Ministries of Transport and other stakeholders to discuss the opportunities of increasing the number of flights among the major cities of the Member and Observer States.
In order to conduct the prospective projects systematically and within a timeframe, Heads of Delegations adopted the joint roadmap which includes various events, exhibitions, festivals, contests, games, training programs, touristic tours and programs with the aim to contribute to the tourism sectors of the Member and Observer States.
8th Ministerial Meeting on Tourism of the Organization of Turkic States will be held in Turkestan city of Kazakhstan in 2023.
