Azerbaijan joins int'l tourism fair in Italy

/AzerNews/

By Amina Nazarli

An international fair called Mediterranean Exchange of Archaeological Tourism (XVII "La Borsa Mediterranea del Turismo Archeologico") was held in Paestum, Italy on October 30-November 2.

Azerbaijan joined the exhibition as an official guest country. The participation was co-organized by the Azerbaijani Ministry of Culture and Tourism, as well as Azerbaijani Embassy in Italy.

The event was attended by more than 37 delegates of several countries including Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Vagif Aliyev, UNESCO's Assistant Director General for Culture and Director of the Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage Mounir Bouchenaki, Secretary general of the Italian Ministry for Heritage Antonia Pasqua Recchia and other influential officials.

It was a successful event as testified in the collaboration of international organizations such as UNESCO, UNWTO and ICCROM. It involved 10,000 visitors, 130 exhibitors from 25 foreign countries, 50 conferences and meetings, 300 speakers, 250 offer operators and 100 journalists.

As part of the event, the opening ceremony of Azerbaijan's pavilion was held where the guests enjoyed various national sweets brought from Azerbaijani regions.The visitors also had a chance to get acquainted with Azerbaijani national cuisine and culture.

An amazing Azerbaijan's national dance performed by professional dancers was warmly welcomed.

More than three tons of printed and multimedia products including Heritage-Patrimonio book in Italian, as well as "The medieval town of Agsu", "Neolithic village Goytapa" and "Ancient Gabala" multimedia products dedicated to the investigations in these regions were distributed among the visitors to promote Azerbaijani culture.

An album by more than 20 magazines on Azerbaijan's tourism opportunity called "Culture and natural heritage of Azerbaijan in photos" was put on display during the fair. "Icheri Sheher" campaign materials were another part of Azerbaijan's presence during the event.

The presentation ceremony of the 1st European Games to be held in Baku in 2015 was also held as part of the fair.

The Mediterranean Exchange of Archaeological Tourism confirms itself as an unique international event. It is home to the only exhibition hall in the world dedicated to archaeological heritage and to ArchaeoVirtual.

It was also the first international event dedicated to multimedia, interactive and virtual technologies and place for the study and debate on cultural heritage and tourism issues.