May 5–6, a delegation led by Kenan Guluzade, Advisor to the Chairman of the State Tourism Agency, represented Azerbaijan at the 5th Meeting of Senior Officials and the 4th Meeting of Tourism Ministers of the D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation, held in Cairo, Egypt.

In his speech, Kenan Guluzade emphasized the government’s strong attention to the development of tourism as a key sector of the economy, highlighting Azerbaijan’s recent role as host of major international events.

He noted that as the host of COP29, Azerbaijan had successfully brought tourism onto the climate agenda for the first time in the history of COP conferences. He shared details of the “COP29 Declaration on Enhanced Climate Action in the Tourism Sector,” which has already been supported by over 70 countries, and invited D-8 member states to join the declaration.

Guluzade also invited participants to the 13th session of the UN World Urban Forum (WUF13), to be held in Baku in 2026. He reaffirmed Azerbaijan’s readiness to contribute to strengthening tourism ties with D-8 member countries.

At the end of the meeting, member states adopted the “Cairo Declaration on D-8 Tourism Cooperation 2025,” aimed at fostering mutual cooperation and unlocking regional development opportunities in the tourism sector. It was also announced that Antalya, Turkey, has been designated as the organization’s tourism city for 2025.

It is worth noting that in the first quarter of 2025, over 160,000 foreign visitors from D-8 member countries traveled to Azerbaijan.