Kazakhstan to chair CIS Tourism Council in 2015

ASTANA. KAZINFORM - In 2015 Kazakhstan will chair the CIS Tourism Council, this has been announced by the Chairman of Committee for Tourism Industry under the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies Marat Yigaliyev at the international economic forum "CIS and new formats of cooperation" which was held in Moscow.

"In 2015 Kazakhstan will chair the CIS Tourism Council. Kazakh side has included in the action plan for the Year of Tourism 20 paragraphs. Almost all the regions of the country supported the initiative and presented their activities", stated Marat Yigaliyev. 2014 was declared the Year of Tourism in the Commonwealth of Independent states. This decision was taken at the meeting of the heads of states in Minsk on October 25th, 2013. One of priority tasks was elaboration of cooperation development strategy in the travel industry till 2020. CIS Tourism Council was established in 1994. It is composed of representatives of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. The Council is engaged in formulating a common strategy for tourism development in the CIS countries.