Over the first three months of this year, more than 215,000 foreign tourists have visited Tajikistan, Numon Abdughafforzoda, the head of the Tourism Development Agency under the Government of Tajikistan, told Asia-Plus in an interview.
According to him, the tourism season starts in the country in May and the number of foreign tourists visiting Tajikistan will gradually increase.
According to the statistical data from the Tourism Development Agency, 1.155 million foreign tourists visited Tajikistan last year, which was 2.6 times more than in 2017.
Asked about introducing state duty for tourists, Abdughafforzoda said that it would not affect tourist inflow in the country.
“The duty rate is not so large, only 1.00 U.S. dollar per day, and it will hardly affect the tourist inflow in Tajikistan,” he noted.
He further added the collected funds will be used to develop the country’s tourism infrastructure.
Under the amendments proposed to the country’s law on other mandatory payments to the budget, both foreign tourists arriving in Tajikistan and Tajik nationals traveling abroad will pay state duty at the rate of 1.00 USD per day. Tajik parliament endorsed these amendments last month.
Veterans of World War II, Chernobyl liquidators (the civil and military personnel who were called upon to deal with consequences of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster), persons with Groups I and II disability, children under 16 and diplomats are exempted from payment of this duty.
According to some sources, 145 tourist companies now operate in Tajikistan.
Recall, President Emomali Rahmon on January 3 signed a decree on declaring 2019-2021 the Period of Development of Rural Areas, Tourism and Folk Crafts in Tajikistan.
The decree aims at speeding up the development of rural areas, tourism and supporting folk crafts in the country.
Proclaiming 2018 the Year of Tourism and Folk Crafts in Tajikistan gave a serious impetus to understanding of the significance of these areas for the social and economic life of the people, Emomali Rahmon noted in his annual address to both houses of parliament on December 26. However, one year is not sufficient to achieve the objectives we set forth, the president added. “This year we have adopted our Tourism Development Strategy and promoted the tourism advantages of Tajikistan; however, additional measures should be taken to improve the sector’s infrastructure across the country,” Rahmon said. For the purpose of speeding up the process of addressing the above-mentioned issues, he proposed to declare 2019-2021 the Period of Development of Rural Areas, Tourism and Folk Crafts in Tajikistan.
