A success story that began with a newspaper ad...In loving memory of Ruslan Guliyev

I, Guliyev Ruslan Garay oglu, was born in 1973 in the city of Baku and studied at secondary school No. 25 in the city of Sumgayit. In 1982-1985, I lived with my grandfather in Zangilan. I graduated from the Faculty of Commerce of the Azerbaijan University of Economics.

The enchanting nature of Zangilan and the hospitality of its people impressed me greatly from my childhood years. At the same time, when I watched television programs and saw a tourist in foreign countries, it caught my interest. I wished I had a backpack and could set off to travel the world. It is very strange that as a child I also had a dream of becoming a doctor. At a relatively older age, I wanted to become a diplomat.

Where the intention is, there the destination is!

Today, I would not be wrong to say that being the head of the Azerbaijan Health and Thermal Tourism Support Association and my activity in this direction is the sum of all these dreams. If one part of my work is directing people who need health-related treatment to the right addresses, then with the saying "tourism is also a form of public diplomacy", the other part is properly informing people and promoting the country's existing tourism potential to various audiences.

Fate so willed it that after graduating from university I received an offer from the Republic of Turkey. In 1995-97, I worked there in various areas of tourism, starting as a hotel attendant, and the work continued with tour operator activity. Throughout all this time, only one thought circled in my mind: my homeland Azerbaijan has such vast, rich tourism potential, so why is it lagging behind in the development of this sector? But I also had this belief inside me that Azerbaijan would one day turn into a popular tourism kingdom. I saw myself precisely in this field. It was with this enthusiasm that I returned to my country. For several years I was engaged in our family business. But as the elders say, "where the intention is, there the destination is".

I started as a specialist, I became a General Director

One day I read an announcement in a newspaper: "A specialist in the field of tourism is required". Without thinking, I came to that institution. They looked at my documents and hired me. From that day, my activity in the field of tourism began. Here I worked for a 6-month probation period with a very modest salary. During this time, I traveled to most districts of Azerbaijan, collected information about the hotels, public catering establishments, historical and cultural monuments there, and prepared the database of the first tourism portal for that company. This was a very successful project, and in 2005 the first tourism portal in the South Caucasus was created. After some time, I became the advertising manager of this company, and later its general director.

Of course, commercial activity is very important; one must earn money and meet the needs of the family. But by spirit I am a public-minded person. In general, interest in public affairs either exists in a person's heart or it does not. You cannot force anyone into this work. With this desire, I began to conduct research on the activity of societies, institutes and institutions related to the development of tourism in Azerbaijan and on what problems exist in this direction. First of all, I personally got acquainted with people who were engaged in tourism activity during the Soviet period and in the years after it, and who had considerable experience in this field. I listened carefully to Fayis Mammadov, Siyavush Yeganli, Sahib Hasanov, Oktay Rzayev, Muzafar Agakarimov and other experienced tourism professionals, looked at routes, and made some improvisations myself. One day, in the organization where I worked, I was appointed general director. I never thought that I am a leader and cannot do this job. Sometimes I even appeared myself in advertising clips related to tourism. I was inside the process and had great enthusiasm for this work, but I thought that I should not rush. The institution I headed had projects related to agriculture and transport, and I participated in these projects and in writing business plans.

One of the main points that preoccupied me was the implementation of international activity in order to attract people from various geographies here. I had to direct the work in this direction in such a way that we would have the opportunity to step onto the international arena as a team, in connection with the public institutions operating in Azerbaijan.

International relations are very important in tourism

One day I saw that people were calling me with projects and business proposals, saying that you can do this better, we trust you. I always thought that until a certain time I should make myself known, and after that one can think about earning money. If at first the image of the company where I worked served my brand, when I created "Millenium", my image served the promotion of "Millenium". The time came when "Millenium" also reached the level of a tourism academy; to date, we have trained more than a thousand specialists there. The next stage, as I said, was the establishment of international relations. I met Yasin Manaf, the president of the Turkish Cooks Federation, who served as deputy minister of tourism for years. And in one of our conversations, an idea was born that we should create the Baku club of the "Skal International" tourism professionals organization in Azerbaijan with the support of Hulya Aslantas. In 2009, we created "Skal Baku" and I became the first president of this organization. We did a lot of work to promote Azerbaijan's tourism potential. Four years later, in accordance with the charter, I handed that post over to Jafar Jafarov, rector of the Tourism University.

In 2013, I founded the Health and Thermal Tourism Support Association. In the first years when I started tourism activity, I always thought that tourism activities that are not of a seasonal nature should be promoted in Azerbaijan. I researched the existing opportunities in this direction, and got acquainted with the work of the sanatorium-resort facilities located in Naftalan, Qalaalti, Masalli, Duzdag and other places. There was a very great potential here; all that remained was its promotion.

For this, we established relations with various prestigious international health tourism organizations. In 2014, the Azerbaijan Health and Thermal Tourism Support Association became a member of the Board of Directors of the World Health Tourism Council (WHT). In April 2018, at the next summit meeting of the WHT held in Turkey, I was elected president of this international organization.

In 2019, the 3rd Global Health Tourism Forum and the 5th Assembly of the Global Health Tourism Council (GHT) were held in Baku. Azerbaijan chaired the World Health Tourism Council in 2018-2020. During this period, the events and projects held in the country played an important role in promoting Azerbaijan's health tourism opportunities to the world.

Later, I received an offer from the International Ecotourism Association regarding the opening of the organization's Azerbaijani representative office. Naturally, I took advantage of this opportunity too.

Last year, we created the "Turan" Gastrotourism Academy in Sumgayit. Here, specialists are trained for the service sector in 11 specialties.

A few years ago, I was elected chairman of the Tourism Commission at the Azerbaijan Entrepreneurs' Confederation; currently I am a member of the organization's presidium.

The value the state places on my work...

The greatest stimulus for me was the value placed on my activity in the field of tourism. In 2022, Mr. President awarded me the "Taraggi" Medal. Over these years, I have not paused my scientific-pedagogical activity either. Since 2006, I have been teaching at the Azerbaijan Tourism Institute (now the University of Tourism and Management).

The victory we achieved in the 2020 Patriotic War made the representatives of the tourism sector proud, just as it did all citizens of the country. In 44 days, everyone united like a fist around the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and the Victorious Azerbaijan Army. Our magnificent Victory concluded in October 2023 with the cleansing of all Karabakh lands from the loathsome enemy, including Shusha, Khankendi, and our incurable wound, Khojaly. Now, at events held in foreign countries, we proudly present our districts liberated from occupation. Our greatest wish is the creation of a multifaceted tourism infrastructure in Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur and achieving the attraction of tourists here. Currently, tours are being carried out for the country's citizens to Shusha, Khankendi, Lachin, and Zangilan. I am confident that in the future these tours will spread to wider areas and become richer in terms of participants.

Looking back...

Today, looking back, I feel a sense of pride, but I also regret certain moments. Have I made mistakes? Of course! But experience is the sum of our mistakes. If we do not make those mistakes, we cannot develop. Every year of the period we left behind had its own conditions.

We have a lot of work ahead!

Our goal is to implement new standards and innovative approaches in the direction of promoting Azerbaijan. On this basis, we must increase our activity aimed at young people and share our experience. I believe that our successors should be able to bring the work we started to a certain point.

As a tourism professional, my advice to readers is that, regardless of where and in what conditions they are, they should protect the national values and culture of the country they represent.