DUSHANBE (TCA) — In the first half of this year, more than 163 thousand foreign tourists visited Tajikistan, spending almost US $82 million in the country, Avesta news agency reported citing Adkham Abdullozoda, the chairman of the Committee of Youth Affairs, Sports and Tourism of Tajikistan.
According to Abdullozoda, in the first half of 2016, 209,511 foreign citizens visited Tajikistan, 163,988 of them arrived as tourists.
Last year, 414 foreign tourists visited Tajikistan.
In Abdullozoda’s words, the economy of Tajikistan received $81.994 million from foreign tourists, $8.361 million more than in the first half of last year.
Abdullozoda earlier said that tourists to Tajikistan were mostly citizens of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Armenia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.
The official also said that Tajikistan aims at increasing the number of tourists visiting the country up to one million a year by 2020.
The government of Tajikistan plans to declare 2017 the Year of Sustainable Tourism Development.
Tajikistan is a mountainous country with the altitudes varying from 300 to 7,495 meters above sea level. Some 93% of the country’s territory is covered by mountain ranges of Pamirs, Hissar-Alay and Tien-Shan mountain systems. These ranges are divided by rich and fertile lands of Ferghana, Zerafshan, Vakhsh and Hissar valleys.
Tajikistan has high peaks, large glaciers, rapid mountain rivers, and beautiful lakes.
According to the website of Tajikistan’s Foreign Ministry, priority types of international tourism in the country are climbing, mountain sports and ecotourism; rafting, paragliding, skiing, and ski mountaineering; historical, cultural and ethnographic tourism; and hunting.
