From March 4 to 6, the Eurasian Mountain Tourism Forum took place at the Shahdag mountain resort in Azerbaijan. It was organized as part of the II Festival of Eurasian Mountain Resorts.
The event program included professional discussions, cultural, and educational activities. Representatives from countries belonging to the Eurasian Alliance of Mountain Resorts (EAMR), as well as delegates from Tajikistan and the tourism industry of Belarus and the Kyrgyz Republic, participated in this large-scale event. The forum also featured speakers from the State Tourism Agency of Azerbaijan, the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of CIS member states, the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia, the Trade Representation of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Azerbaijan, and mountain resorts of EAMR countries.
Forum participants planned to discuss a wide range of strategic issues related to the development of mountain tourism in the Eurasian region. Speakers at plenary sessions considered the prospects of creating an interstate mountain tourist route, exchanged practical experience in improving safety at mountain resorts, discussed initiatives of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of CIS countries in this area, public-private partnership mechanisms in "heavy" mountain infrastructure, and others.
In his welcome address to the Forum, Kenan Guluzade, Advisor to the Chairman of the State Tourism Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan, noted that in recent years the country has taken important steps to develop winter and mountain tourism and mountain sports. He emphasized that as a result of the work carried out, infrastructure has been improved, new facilities meeting modern standards have been created, and the Winter Sports Federation has held meetings and concluded agreements with international sports organizations and federations. He also noted that thanks to the Forum, new opportunities have emerged not only for the development of Azerbaijan's tourism sector but also for the formation of innovative tourism models in Eurasia. This speech was complemented by Rustam Najafov, Chairman of Shahdag Tourism Center CJSC: "Our participation in the Eurasian Alliance of Mountain Resorts contributes to expanding partnerships and increasing tourist attractiveness. In recent years, Shahdag has become one of the prestigious centers for international sports competitions, and the experience of colleagues in this area was very important to us. Therefore, the current Forum was extremely useful for feeling the trends in this area and understanding the best global practices."
Rosa Khutor was at the origin of the creation of the Eurasian Alliance of Mountain Resorts (EAMR) in 2023. It also hosted the first Festival of Eurasian Mountain Resorts last year. The Rosa Khutor delegation also actively participated in the work of the Forum in Shahdag. As Sergey Khvorostyany, Deputy General Director for International Relations and Tourism, said: "We have traditionally come up with initiatives aimed at the joint development of tourism between mountain resorts in Eurasia. From the point of view of improving the quality of tourism services, it was extremely important to practically implement the idea of creating an Interstate Mountain Tourist Route. We hope that as a result of our meeting with colleagues in Shahdag, we have made significant progress on this path. For the Rosa Khutor resort, cooperation with partners within the EAMR was interesting primarily for the development of our communication strategy in the tourist markets of CIS countries. Depending on the season, the share of tourists from the Commonwealth states is up to 65% of all foreign guests visiting our resort." During the current Festival of Eurasian Mountain Resorts in Shahdag, representatives of Rosa Khutor participated not only in the business program. Resort instructors also took part in the starts of the I Open Championship among instructors and instructor teams in alpine skiing EAMR.
For the first time, a Russian manufacturer of cable cars, the Ruslet company, acted as a partner of the Festival of Eurasian Mountain Resorts. In addition, the domestic company Vasta Hotel Management presented participants of the Festival with innovative products for the development and management of hotel chains in the resort areas of Russia.
The Eurasian Alliance of Mountain Resorts was created in 2023. This public organization united six leading mountain resorts of Eurasia – the Russian Rosa Khutor, Amirsoy from Uzbekistan, Shahdag from Azerbaijan, Shymbulak and Oi-Karagai from Kazakhstan, and the Mona Yong Pyong resort from South Korea.
Blogs
