Baku hosts meeting of OIC Tourism Coordination Committee

The eighth meeting of the Tourism Coordination Committee of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) was held in Baku on May 3 under the chairmanship of Azerbaijan and with the participation of 10 member states.

According to Report, the meeting read out the text of a welcoming address of OIC Secretary General Hissein Brahim Taha to the participants.

Head of the State Tourism Agency of Azerbaijan Kanan Gasimov, who chaired the meeting, noting that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation constantly supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, said the tourism potential of our country has expanded thanks to the liberation of lands from occupation, said Karabakh has already been recognised as a new tourist destination for foreign travelers.

He noted that the meeting was useful in terms of discussing the implementation of important decisions taken during the 11th Tourism Ministerial Conference of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, held under the chairmanship of Azerbaijan in 2022, and their implementation.

The discussion included exchange of views on the current criteria for evaluating the OIC Tourism City Award, as well as review and adoption of action plans in connection with the announcement of the Turkish city of Şanlıurfa and Uzbek Khiva as tourist cities for the years 2023 and 2024.

At the meeting it was stated that Şanlıurfa is one of the cities affected by the earthquake and participants called on all relevant OIC institutions to prepare effective programs and projects to restore the tourism potential after the expected reconstruction of the city in the near future.