Press Release
Aitf - 2009
The 8th Azerbaijan International Travel and Tourism Fair "AITF - 2009" was held in the Heydar Aliyev Sports and Exhibition Complex in the capital of Azerbaijan - Baku city. Active support in holding of the AITF exhibition was given by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Azerbaijan Republic, World Tourism Organisation, Export and Investment Promotion Foundation in Azerbaijan (AZPROMO), Association of Tourism Fair Organisers and Azerbaijan Tourism Association. The organisers of the exhibition were the Iteca Caspian LLC company and its partner, the British exhibition company ITE Group PLC.
The official opening ceremony was held with the participation of the Minister of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan Mr. Abulfas Garayev, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Turkey to the Republic of Azerbaijan Mr. Hulusi Kilidzh, President of the Export and Investment Promotion Foundation in Azerbaijan Mr. Rahim Huseynov, and Director of the Iteca Caspian LLC Mr. Farid Mamedov. Among the high ranking guests of the exhibition were representative delegations from Iraq, Jordan, Turkey, Germany and Malaysia.
The opening ceremony started from the speech of Mr. Garayev who underlined that the sector of culture and tourism in Azerbaijan was developing at high rate and that owing to its geographic location, provided favourable conditions and implemented reforms Azerbaijan was turning into a famous tourism location in the world. "At the current exhibition we have presented Nagorniy Garabagh. The state has defined the prospects of development of seven tourism zones, on which Nagorniy Garabagh is one. Today, we are designing roads, developing other projects and as soon as our occupied lands are liberated they will turn into the most attractive locations for tourism in Azerbaijan," Mr. Garayev said. The minister also reminded that 35 new hotels are currently under construction in Azerbaijan. Last year four new international airports were opened in Azerbaijan. "I think in the nearest two or three years Azerbaijan will become another new tourism region in the world," Garayev said. "Although the world has witnessed aggravation of the global financial crisis in 2008, the number of foreign citizens who visited Azerbaijan for the first time totalled 1899 million people as compared to the 1.3 million in 2007. This situation is known to "AITF" which assembles approximately 100 companies from more than 21 world countries. Such an increase in the number of participants is unprecedented." At the end of his speech, Mr. Garayev thanked the organisers of the exhibition and wished all the participants productive work, new business contacts and prosperity to tourism companies.
Then the floor was given to Mr. Kilidzh who underlined that he was very glad to take part in the "AITF" exhibition and noted that development of tourism requires control over the quality level of services. This is one of the main strategy lines Turkey adheres to in development of tourism business in the country.
Mr. Huseynov noted that the exhibition was organised at a high level. "The Export and Investment Promotion Foundation will continue cooperation with the organisers and do its best to make the Azerbaijan exhibitions prosper and the number of participants and exposition areas increase", he said.
At the end of the ceremony, the director of the Iteca Caspian company Mr. Farid Mamedov thanked the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in the person of the Minister - Mr. Garayev, as well as AzPromo, Association of Tourism Fair Organisers and Azerbaijan Tourism Association for their invaluable support in organisation of the exhibition and invited everyone to make a VIP tour round the exhibition.
The "AITF - 2009" exhibition hosted over 100 companies from 21 world countries. This year the exposition area of the exhibition has grown by 30 %. Approximately 35 % of the exhibition is made up by local companies. The pleasant fact is the active participation of the regions of Azerbaijan which are represented by hotels of Gabala, Nabran, Guba, Lenkoran and other regions. The hotel network of the Absheron area is also widely represented. Traditionally, the colourful stand of Garabagh organised by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Azerbaijan Republic demonstrated samples of material culture reflecting the history and art of the ancient land. "AITF - 2009" expositions offered all necessary goods and services united by the "World of tourism" notion.
At their stands, companies presented their services connected with airlines, bus tourism, sports tourism, organisation of business tours, car rent, ecological tourism and other directions of tourism. For the first time, GPRS navigation systems for directing tourists on land were presented. All those wishing to learn about the globally popular tourism routes had the opportunity of getting consultations regarding obtainment of necessary documents for travelling abroad.
Due to the announcement of Baku a capital of Islamic Culture in 2009, this year's exhibition is peculiar with the high attention of state tourism agencies of Islamic countries. Jordan, UAE, Malaysia, Indonesia and Iraq participated with their national stands in the framework of the united stand of ISESCO. For the first time, national stands of Spain and Mauritius island participated with expositions. Such countries as Italy, Switzerland, Thailand and China have taken an active part in the exhibition. Turkey traditionally participated with its national stand and acted this year as the sponsor of the exhibition. The organisers of the stand - the embassy of Turkey to Azerbaijan created an interesting and informative show-quiz with the assistance of a group of actors. The advantage owing to which Turkey is hoping to acquire the image of a stable tourism state independent from the global financial crisis is the diversity of routes and the growth of the free services package. For the first time his year, the national Tourism Organisation of Greece took part in the exhibition. It evaluated its participation in the project as presentation of Greece on the Azerbaijan market. Czechia was among the participating countries this year to present not only its tourism potential, but also the education abroad sector, the so-called preparatory program for entering higher education facilities in Czechia. Apart from that, Czechia which is no newcomer to "AITF" exhibitions has doubled the area of its expositions. The united stand of four Czech companies offered different tours and sanatorium services of famous Moravian resorts. The representatives of companies were definitely set to perform active professional activity, but also decided to entertain the visitors with a cheerful concert program and surprises. Three days running, national music was performed on violins and dulcimers at their stand. The AITF 2009 exhibition stands out with its new participants, proposals and ideas. The company which presented the tourism zone of Nakhchivan made its debut at the exhibition. An annually increasing number of Azerbaijan citizens visit Spain where all necessary conditions for youth tourism have been created. Surprisingly to the visitors of "AITF - 2009" who expected high prices from one of the leaders of world tourism, Spanish tourism operators turned out to take into account interests of all strata of population. So, now owing to the established contacts, the Azerbaijan Green Travel company, for example, will cooperate with such a famous tourism firm as Ancodes from Catalonia. At "AITF - 2009", UAE presented a wide network of popular hotels in Dubai, as well as companies engaged in tourism business. The number of Dubai tourism operators participating in the Azerbaijan forum is increasing and numerous contracts are the result of such participation. Ukraine presented at the exhibition one of its largest balneotherapeutic [balneology] health resorts - Truskavets, famous for the diversity of mineral waters. At the ISESCO stand this year Iran participated with a presentable delegation of tourism operators. The main purpose of Iran tourism companies' participation at the exhibition is joint work with Azerbaijan colleagues for development of youth tourism, as well as educational or ecological tourism. Detailed information about the exhibition participants is available at.
An extensive business program was planned for the exhibition. One of the main events of the first exhibition day was the meeting with the representatives of tourism companies of Germany and Morocco, foreign Mass Media, Mr. Minister and Deputy Minister Mr. Mehdiyev. At the meeting with foreign guests, information about the tourism potential of Azerbaijan, legislative base, new tourism sites and regional infrastructure was given. In the course of the meeting, a particular emphasis was made on positive influence of the tourism exhibitions held in Azerbaijan on the growth of the inflow of foreign guests into the country.
On the exhibition days, the Azerbaijan Tourism Institute whose stand was also presented at "AITF - 2009" held a meeting with the special authorised representative of the Federal government of Germany in tourism Mr. Ernst Hinsken and representative of the Federal Ministry of Economy and new technologies of Germany Ms. Margaret Steffel. The rector of the institute Mr. Jafar Jafarov informed that it was the only higher education facility in Azerbaijan functioning for the purpose of developing domestic tourism and training of qualified cadres, and collaborating with the leading education facilities of different countries included the universities of Germany. Ernst Hinsken highly evaluated the performance of the institute and expressed readiness to render support to the development of tourism in Azerbaijan.
On the first day of the exhibition, the National stand of Malaysia presented its tourism potential. On the second day, an open workshop- presentation of the Levi resort - the largest winter resort of Finland and Scandinavia was held with the support of the Ministry of Tourism of Finland and Ministry of culture and tourism of the Azerbaijan Republic. The program of the second day also included the presentation of Dubai hotels. In general, different competitions, lotteries, raffles of free vouchers to hotels of Turkey, Gabala and Lenkaran were organised for the visitors.
According to the foreign exponents, they willingly visited Baku for "AITF", as this event is held at a high level and produces good results. This year the exhibition was visited by more than 7000 visitors from 24 world countries, including USA, UAE, Italy, Japan, Czechia, Germany, etc. More than half of the visitors were professionals of the industry.
"AITF" served as a visual demonstration of the practical methods of resistance to the global crisis: regardless of the financial problems encountered globally this year, the area of the current exposition increased by one third, having united lots of tourism operators and companies that aspire to offer good quality services to the international community on the threshold of the summer season. In short, the "AITF - 2009" exhibition has once again proven its status of the meeting point of the professionals of tourism industry and a link among companies that wish to expand the boundaries of their business in Azerbaijan. It has served another perfect opportunity to discover new countries and to learn lots of new and interesting things about the tourism potential of already familiar countries. Not without reason, the exhibition of the year 2009 was held under the slogan "Discover the world at "AITF"!"