KHOROG, September 1, 2014, Asia-Plus — The Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) law enforcement authorities have been taught in how to behave with foreign tourists.
“A seminar on an international etiquette for receiving foreign guests has been conducted for law enforcement officers in the Darvoz district recently,” Mr. Asadsho Zoolshoyev, the CEO of the Pamirs Eco-Cultural Tourism Association (PECTA), told Asia-Plus in an interview.
“The seminar was organized by PECTA and the GBAO Department for Youth, Sports and Tourism Affairs and its participants included 20 local police, border guard and customs officers,” said Zoolshoyev. “They were taught in how to behave foreign tourists.”
“All necessary conditions have been created in Tajikistan for foreign tourists to enter and leave the country but sometimes, representatives of law enforcement and power-wielding agencies in the provinces are detaining foreign tourists for no reason, raising issuance fees and treating them roughly,” Zoolshoyev noted.
Such seminars are being conducted in Tajikistan for the first time. “To-date, similar seminars have been conducted in Khorog and Ishkashim district,” PECTA CEO said, noting that Mr. Matthias Poeschel, the Advisor for Tourism and Sustainable Development at the Center for International Migration and Development (CIM), acted as facilitator.
CIM is jointly run by GIZ and the German Federal Employment Agency.
The main objective of such seminars is reportedly in removing many artificial subjective and sometimes illegal obstacles created by local authorities for foreign tourists.
The Pamirs Eco-Cultural Tourism Association (PECTA) was established in April 2008 with the support of the Mountain Societies Development Support Programme (MSDSP), a project of the Aga Khan Foundation and is a non-commercial organization which functions in accordance with the civil code, law about non-commercial organization and with the present legislation of the Republic of Tajikistan. PECTA is a member of the Tourism Coordination Council under the Local Government of GBAO.
