The opening ceremony of the Internatinal exhibition ''Tourism and Travelling'' and the conference on the development of cooperation in this sphere took place in the Avaza National tourism zone. The forum brought together the delegates, representing more than 20 countries, including Russia, China, USA, Great Britain, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Finland, Denmark, Serbia, Italy, Iran, India, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine among others. The opening ceremony, arranged in the Seyrana Hotel gathered together many guests. Among them were the honorary elders, the representatives of the local administration, numerous tourists, including those who arrived to the sea resort from different countries and parts of the world. They were attracted by a festive revival, reigning on a colorfully decorated platform in front of the hotel. Yurts were installed there. The samples of the Turkmen decorative and applied arts, carpets and jewelry were presented there. The guests were treated with the dishes of the Turkmen cuisine. The musical and ethnographic composition underlined the national colour of the festival. The spectators were admired with the songs and dances, performed by the artistic groups and popular artists. More than twenty foreign companies - national travel agencies, organizations and enterprises, working in the sanatorium-and-health-resort industry, hotel business and other related areas presented their stands at the exhibition. Among the foreign exhibitors are the Resort Hotel Karpaty (Ukraine), BelAgroTravel - the leading travel agency in Belarus, Rainbow Tours SA - the Polish tour operator, AL Rakyah Tourism - the Russian branch of the well-known Dubai company, the regional office of the Tours France, the Astra travel agency, specializing in SPA services (the Czech Republic), Fardis Parwaz - the Iranian travel agency and Bek Tour travel agency (Uzbekistan), as well as a number of commercial enterprises from China and other countries. All key subdivisions of the State Committee for Tourism and over 60 core enterprises of our country, as well as Avaza hotels vividly demonstrated the resources of cooperation and new projects. The Yelken yacht-club demonstrated the wide spectrum of its services for practicing sailing and water activities. The exhibition demonstrated the unique tourism opportunities of Turkmenistan and its regions, provided the latest information on the trends in the travel industry, the organisation of various recreation activities. Moreover, the foreign visitors and exhibition participants had an opportunity to learn more about the partnership potential of the Ministry of Textile Industry and the Turkmenhowayollary national air carrier. In the framework of the plenary session of the conference, opened in the afternoon, the representatives of Turkmenistan familiarized those present with the strategy and priorities of the innovative development of the tourism complex, developed by President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, and its basis, represented by the rich diversity of the cultural and natutal heritage. One of the themes discussed during the conference was sports tourism and valuable experience in hosting guests and holding large international competitions, accumulated by the country during the Ashgabat-2017 Games. The ambitious sports event provided the world community with the ooportunity to learn more about our country, including its sights, as well as offered a powerful incentive to develop the sports tourism in Turkmenistan. The sports tourism is a new area for Turkmenistan, that has tremendous potential for development. The country has all necessary conditions to use it, including the modern international airport, new airplanes, trains, roads, luxury hotels, highly qualified specialists, multilingual professional tour guides. The foreign participants of the congress focused on a wide range of issues in their reports: from the cooperation within the framework of the World Tourism Organization till the cooperation in the field of vocational education, organization of seminars and meetings. It was underlined the important peace-making role of tourism as it helps to know the history, traditions and heritage of the peoples of other countries, due to which the international cultural and friendly ties are strengthened. The exchange of views allowed to represent various approaches to the development of this sector, as well as to analyze the useful achievements of successful companies in the industry, to consider the brightest examples of Turkmenistan's partnership with foreign structures in this direction.