DUSHANBE
, January 18, Asia-Plus – Last year, 14,437 tourists from
America
,
Europe
and
Asia
visited
Tajikistan
, Asia-Plus has learned from Erkin Muqimov, head of the trade and tourism department within the Ministry of Economy and Trade (MET).
In 2005, according to him, 16,463 Tajik citizens visited
Saudi Arabia
, the
United Arab Emirates
,
China
,
France
, the
United Kingdom
,
Russia
and
Kyrgyzstan
for commercial purposes or as pilgrims (
Saudi Arabia
).
“Experts link increase in number of tourists visiting
Tajikistan
to domestic and foreign policy of the country,” noted Muqimov, “The most attractive types of tourism for foreigner in
Tajikistan
are mountaineering and mountain tourism, motor and bicycle journeys, walking tours.”
Muqimov says the MET has worked out a series of programs on drumming up foreign investments in development of tourism and relevant industries in the republic.
Local exerts name lack of skilled personnel and difficulties with getting visa as well as poor state of tourism centers and high prices of air tickets and hotels as the main factors impeding development of tourism in the republic.
According to the Asia-Plus interlocutor, tourism cannot develop without aid from state, in particular without providing preferential terms to local and foreign investors working in this sphere.
