Abulfaz Garayev: "One million tourists in Azerbaijan is a real figure"

The due information was provided by Azerbaijan's Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfaz Garayev at a press conference today, Day.Az reports.

"Some newspapers and websites do not trust the official statistics according to which 1 million tourists visit Azerbaijan each year. One million tourists in Azerbaijan is not a tale. The number of tourists arriving in Azerbaijan is calculated by the single international system. If this is a tale, then the tale is 16,000,000 tourists in Turkey and 32,000,000 in France a year.

Tourist is not only a person who walks along the country with a camera. There are people, who attend congresses and other arrangements held in the country. These people are also considered tourists in other countries", A.Garayev said.

According to the Minister, the method of calculating tourists is the same throughout the world. That is the number of people, living or working in the country, is subtracted from the overall number of people, who pass the border.

"Considering this fact, 1,000,000 tourists in Azerbaijan is not surprising", the Minister said.

/Day.Az/