DUSHANBE, September 14, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- An excursion tourism is still undeveloped in Dushanbe and the government and local tour operators should take efforts to develop it, Davlat Habibov, the director of the tourist company, Alp-Mashkov, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.

“In Tajikistan, tourism is currently developed more or less in Gorno Badakhshan and Sughd,” said Habibov, “Tourists mainly arrive in Tajikistan to visit Gorno Badakhshan and some other tourist zones in the country.  They are mainly mountaineers from Russia, Germany, France and Spain.”

He says some 140 various tourist companies currently operate in Tajikistan.

According to figures provided by the Committee for Youth, Sports and Tourism Affairs, some 5,000 foreign tourist have visited Tajikistan this year, most of them are mountaineers.  Specialists attribute a comparative increase in the number of mountaineers visiting Tajikistan to abolishing fee for ascending mountains in Tajikistan.  The new law on tourism abolished a $100 fee that had previously been required for ascending mountains over 6,000 meters high.