A delegation from the ECO Secretariat, headed by the Organization’s Secretary General, Ibrahim Halil Akca, participated in the inauguration ceremony for the “Tabriz 2018” event which celebrated the selection of Iran’s northwestern city of Tabriz as the capital of Islamic tourism in 2018.
The official ceremony was inaugurated by the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hassan Rouhani on April 25, 2018 in Tabriz International Conference Center with participation of provincial and national authorities and foreign ambassadors to Tehran.
A key location on the Silk Road and a gateway to Europe and East Asia, the northwestern Iranian city was named as the 2018 tourism capital of Islamic countries by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) during its meeting in Niger’s capital city of Niamey. The OIC first recognized Jerusalem al-Quds as the tourism capital of the Muslim world in 2015. The Turkish city of Konya and the Holy city of Medina were recognized as the next tourism capitals in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
