Turkey’s tour-operators visit Abkhazia on a business

On 28 May, at the invitation of the CCI of the Republic of Abkhazia, tour-operators and representatives of tourist-businesses in Turkey arrived on a visit to Abkhazia. Over two days excursions to the outstanding sites of the republic were organised for the visitors by operatives of the CCI of the Republic of Abkhazia.

The tour-operators also visited hotels and also familiarised themselves with the list of travel-agencies operating in Abkhazia.

"The purpose of these activities is for the guests to become acquainted with the tourist-resort potential of the Republic of Abkhazia in order to establish a bilateral tourist-flow" said Apsnypress at the CCI of the Republic of Abkhazia.
On May 30, in the conference hall of the "Inter-Sukhum" hotel, there took place a summative conference, at which were discussed a number of issues relating to the tourism-business.

President of the CCI of the Republic of Abkhazia, Gennadi Gagulia, thanked the guests for coming and for the opportunity to exchange views. "The tourism-business is one of the fastest growing industries of the world-economy. We must promote the development of tourism in our country. We possess the most important resource, which is that of Nature. And we should use it wisely," said Gennadi Gagulia.

Member of the Federation of Abkhazian cultural centres in Istanbul, Mahmut Umut Odzemir, thanked the president of the CCI of the Republic of Abkhazia for the invitation and said that this visit was extremely informative and useful for tour-operators in Turkey.

Representatives of the tourism-business in Turkey also made their presentations. There were lots of suggestions for improvement in this area. For example, the opening of schools for teaching service-staff.

"One of the important factors in a successful business is the quality of service. Also of no small importance is the presence of tourism-development programme," said the head of the tourist-company «CNR Turizm» of Düzce.
The lack of international standards in the hospitality-industry in Abkhazia was discussed. The tour-operators also noted the need to open more restaurants with a focus on the national cuisine,

At the end of the conference, there was a signing of cooperation-agreements with the tour-operators in Turkey. "The expected results of these agreements are: the promotion of resort- and tourist-potential of the Republic of Abkhazia in Turkey; establishing and attracting tourist-flows; exchange of information, and so on," said Gennadi Gagulia.