President Ilham Aliyev and Mrs Mehriban Aliyeva familiarized themselves with "AITF-2017" 16th Azerbaijan International Tourism and Travels Exhibition

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva familiarized themselves with "AITF-2017" 16th Azerbaijan International Tourism and Travels Exhibition and “HOREX Caucasus-2017” 11th Caucasus International Hotel, Restaurant and Supermarket Equipment and Accessories Exhibition at the Baku Expo Centre, April 6.

272 companies from 22 countries are participating in this year’s exhibition. Visitors will have a chance to get acquainted with over 90 foreign tourism directions, as well as domestic recreation possibilities. There are 17 national and regional stands at the exhibition.

President Ilham Aliyev first viewed the stand of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. 7 entities are represented here besides the ministry. These companies offer services on various directions of tourism. In general, information about the tourism potential is given at the stand, including tourism itineraries, tourism places of Azerbaijan, existing tourism infrastructure in our regions, tourism potential of the districts, along with the capital.

The Head of the State then viewed the stand of the Azerbaijan Tourism Association. 15 companies are represented here. These companies are specialised in hotel and tourism businesses. Information may be obtained at this stand about the existing hotel complexes, recreation places and entertainment centres both in Baku and in the regions.

The President and the First Lady familiarised themselves also with the Garabagh stand. This stand too aroused much interest at the exhibition. Here, information is given about Garabagh, an integral part of Azerbaijan.

The Head of the State was given information about the stand of “ASAN Visa”. 40 thousand 63 people were issues visas since the start of the system’s operation to date. Among those applying for an electronic visa, citizens of the Islamic Republic of Iran are in majority. Citizens of Germany, the Great Britain, USA, Pakistan, India, Israel, Turkmenistan, Italy and France are among those availing themselves of this service. Majority of those obtaining visa come to our country with the tourist purpose.

Then President Ilham Aliyev and Mrs Mehriban Aliyeva arrived at the stand of “Baku Shopping Festival”. The Shopping Festival will take place for the first time in the Azerbaijani capital, from April 10 to May 10. The objective of holding this festival, scheduled to be arranged twice a year, is to make our country more attractive in terms of tourism and encourage increase of trade turnover by promoting entrepreneurship.

President Ilham Aliyev was shown the process of returning the value added tax paid for a product to be purchased during the festival.

Russia’s Stavropol region too is extensively represented at the exhibition. Governor of the region Vladimir Vladimirov informed the President of the stand. Here, some 50 companies and 30 health centres offer their services.

The Head of the State viewed also the stand of “Natural Haly” Company. The company orders weaving of carpets in various regions of Azerbaijan. All of them are made manually. Here are also hand-made carpets from Tabriz, Turkmenistan and other countries.

Having made themselves familiarized with stands, President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva wished successes to the exhibition.