The Ministry of Tourism signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a visiting Azerbaijani delegation today, July 22, with a view to increasing tourism cooperation between the two Asian nations.
Minister of Tourism Hout Hak welcomed the delegation personally.
His Azerbaijani guests were led by Azerbaijani deputy foreign Elnur Mammadov, who is paying an official visit to the Kingdom. He also co-chaired the
4th Cambodia-Azerbaijan Political Consultative Meeting, held on July 21-22 in Phnom Penh. The meeting focused on key agendas in politics, economy, tourism, education and humanitarian affairs.
“During this significant and fruitful meeting, the two countries shared a common view on the importance of tourism to their national economies,” said a tourism ministry statement.
It noted that both nations possess a long history, culture, and civilisation, rich and ancient traditions, as well as political stability.
“Both countries possess many world heritage sites, with Cambodia known for its famous Angkor Wat temple, and Azerbaijan for its heritage sites in the capital Baku, including the Shirvanshahs Palace with its city walls and the Maiden Tower, all considered pearls of national architecture,” it added.
Mammadov told a post-signing press conference that he had an excellent exchange with the tourism ministry, with the two sides discussing the potential for developing the relationship between the state tourism agency of Azerbaijan and the ministry.
“We spoke about the various concrete initiatives that we could take in order to increase the number of tourists, in both directions. I’m glad that we’ve been able to identify concrete measures that we can start taking sooner rather than later in order to be able to promote them,” he said.
He described the first step as awareness raising.
“We believe that not many people in Azerbaijan have sufficient information about Cambodia as a nice and favourable tourism destination,” he added.
He also sought ways to provide the people of Cambodia with more information about the tourism potential of Azerbaijan and about the country in general, sharing his hope that the mutual lack of awareness is an issue that both sides could tackle together.
He explained the reasons behind Azerbaijan’s tourism expansion efforts. It is wealthy in oil and gas, with a rich history in energy exports. As part of a strategic decision to diversify away from energy, the government has elected to invest heavily in tourism.
He noted that this year, Cambodia expected to welcome around 7.5 million tourists, although this figure will likely increase next year, and compared it to his own country’s experience. Azerbaijan will attract around 3 million tourists this year, although with a population of less than 10 million, the comparison is not precise.
“We are interested in this cooperation in order to see what your experience is, how you can share knowledge in this field and what best practices we can learn from each other. In the meantime, we want to encourage tourism and the increase of tourists in both directions. And it doesn’t have to be only Azerbaijan,” he said.
In most cases, packaged tourists do not only visit one country, but it the neighbouring countries as well. Same for Azerbaijanian tourists traveling to Cambodia, they could also visit the neighbouring countries as part of the tour because it’s a long way. It’s quite a distance between the two countries, so he hoped that they would be able to manage this, he explained.
He noted that with the MoU, there will be direct contact between its state tourism agency and the Cambodian tourism ministry. He noted that his foreign affairs ministry would be glad to facilitate their contacts and see how they could improve them.
“There are many sites in Cambodia which are very popular and renowned around the world. Some of them are inscribed on UNESCO World Heritage List, such as Angkor Wat. We also have five monuments in Azerbaijan inscribed on the UNESCO list, and we’re increasing that number from time to time, providing submissions to include more monuments,” he added.
He believed that both countries have untapped opportunities in the field of tourism and just need to share their stories with the world to attract more visitors.
The two countries have already signed an agreement on Visa Exemptions for Holders of Diplomatic Passports. Mammadov met with second vice-president of the National Assembly Vong Sauth on Monday.
During that meeting, Sauth noted that Cambodia and Azerbaijan have had diplomatic ties for more than 30 years. Over the past three decades, their relations and cooperation have been continuously enhanced, especially after a 2014 visit by Hun Sen, former prime minister and current president of the Senate, to Azerbaijan. This promoted cooperation between the government branches of both countries, both legislative and executive.
He encouraged the two governments to continue to strengthen and expand cooperation in the fields of politics and the economy, especially investment and trade, and other priority sectors such as tourism and education, in order to bring benefits to both sides.
Mammadov explained that after visiting the Angkor Wat Temple, he realised how attractive Cambodia is for tourists and would encourage more Azerbaijani people to visit.
This article was updated on July 23.
