NEW GOALS

Traditionally, the outcome of the tourism season in Azerbaijan is evaluated at the end of September. According to preliminary data, the increased number of foreign tourists in January-August 2019 is indicative of a positive trend in the development of the industry. At the same time, 2019 was also successful in terms of the experience gained over the past four years of the recreational boom and the establishment of a new long-term trend, the development of the tourism market in China and Asia.

Stable dynamics

According to the State Tourism Agency, in January-August 2019, more than 2.136 million foreign tourists from almost 190 countries of the world visited Azerbaijan, which is 8.3% more than last year. Thus, it was possible not only to ensure an increase in the number of foreign guests, but also to keep the growth rate of tourist flow almost stable. For comparison, the growth rate during the eight months of the last year reached 8.5%, which is only a fraction of a percent higher than the current indicator.

Today Azerbaijan is more than twice ahead of the global statistics on attracting tourists. According to the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the number of international tourist arrivals in the world in the first half of 2019 increased by only 4%. According to UNWTO statistics, the best indicators for the growth of tourist flow were demonstrated in 2017, when the number of travellers in the world reached 1.3 billion people. The growth compared to 2016 was 7%, which was recognized as the best indicator for the previous seven years.

Remarkably, 2017 was also the best period for the development of the tourism industry in Azerbaijan, when 2.7 million tourists visited the country, which is 20% higher than in 2016, which was also very successful in this regard.

UNWTO experts associate the global growth in tourist travel observed two years ago with factors of a “strong economy” with affordable air travel and significant facilitation of visa regimes. However, the UNWTO warns that the “continuing uncertainty” concerning Britain’s withdrawal from the EU and the tensions in trade relations of several countries of the world could impede the further growth of the global tourist flow.

Among the leaders

Nevertheless, in spite of the not entirely favourable global situation and a decrease in the indicators of tourist activity, Azerbaijan managed to maintain relatively high rates at the regional level. It is still one of the three leaders of the post-Soviet space, and in the South Caucasus it is second only to Georgia. Last year, Bloomberg experts included Azerbaijan along with Turkey, Georgia, Macedonia and Iceland in the top ten most rapidly growing tourist destinations in the world.

According to the poll conducted during the annual National Geographic Traveller Awards 2019, this year Azerbaijan was included in the top five countries for excursion vacations. Thus, Azerbaijan shared places with the world's most popular tourism destinations, such as Italy, the UK, Portugal and Belgium.

As far as the tourist attractiveness of Azerbaijan in the former Soviet Union is concerned, according to the leading Russian tourist portal TurStat, Azerbaijan has been steadily moving towards leadership among the top 5 most popular holiday destinations for Russian tourists for more than a year. This is not surprising if we take into account that the Russians take first place in the number of foreign guests in Azerbaijan. According to the State Tourism Agency, in January-August 2019, more than half of the tourists in Azerbaijan were citizens of Russia and Georgia. In particular, during the reporting period, 653.8 thousand people arrived from Russia (an increase of 5%) followed by Georgia with 472.4 thousand tourists. The growth rate was unprecedented (22.8%). The absence of a language barrier, accessibility and, of course, the attractiveness of natural, cultural and gastronomic attractions contribute to the growth of the popularity of holidays in Azerbaijan not only among Russian tourists, but also residents of other countries of the former Soviet Union.

According to the Centre for Analysis and Communication of Economic Reforms, a noticeable increase in the popularity of trips to Azerbaijan is observed in the countries of Central Asia. In January-August, 83 thousand people arrived from this region, while the growth rate reached a phenomenal 40.4%. The largest part of those who came from the Central Asian region are citizens of Turkmenistan (32 thousand, an increase of 82.9%) and Kazakhstan (31 thousand, an increase of 21.2%).

Oriental Express

The growth of 38.1% of the tourist flow from the Indochina region and Southeast Asia is also very remarkable (72 thousand tourists during the reporting period). Most of the tourists who came from South Asia were Indian citizens - 39 thousand (an increase of 68%), Pakistan - 29 thousand (12.9%).

“We expect approximately 63% increase in tourist flow from India in 2019, and by the end of the year, the number of Indian tourists visiting Azerbaijan can reach 65,000,” Florian Sengstschmid, general director of the Tourism Bureau of Azerbaijan said during a recent tour in the B2B format to New Delhi. In order to encourage the Azerbaijani direction, road shows and a series of presentations were held in the three largest cities of India: Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai.

The most important area of ​​geographical diversification is the increase in tourist flow from China. “In 2018, we achieved a 50% growth. In the coming years, the number of Chinese tourists arriving in Azerbaijan can reach 200,000,” Fuad Naghiyev, chairman of the State Agency for Tourism of Azerbaijan, said.

In January-August 2019, the number of Chinese citizens visiting Azerbaijan reached 17,000 (30% increase compared to last year). “China has great tourism potential, which opens up prospects for expanding cooperation with Azerbaijan,” Florian Sengstschmid said. “The Azerbaijan Tourism Bureau has signed a memorandum of understanding with two major online platforms of China - Ctrip and Qyer, and this agreement is aimed at joint development of tourism products oriented to the Chinese market and contributing to an increase in tourist flow from China to Azerbaijan.”

The total number of users of Ctrip and Qyer reaches 400 million, which promises good prospects for popularising the recreational opportunities of Azerbaijan. The memorandum was signed within the framework of the Azerbaijan-China Roadshow on Travel Trade event  attended by 12 travel agencies of Azerbaijan and about 250 from Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing, where the Bureau of Tourism of Azerbaijan held a series of presentations and meetings in B2B format on September 16-21. In order to promote the tourism in 2018, the bureau opened its official representative office in China.

Our neighbours

New prospects for increasing inbound tourism are also opening up in the Turkish direction following the lifting of the visa regime for Turkish citizens on September 1, 2019. “The abolition of the visa regime for Turkish citizens will contribute to the deepening of relations between the two countries in tourism, and in particular contributes to the growth of tourist flow from Turkey,” Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said.

During the eight months of 2019, the dynamics of tourist flow from Turkey remained quite high: 203 thousand Turkish citizens visited Azerbaijan (increase of 5.1%).

In January-August 2019, there was a decline in tourist flow from the Arab states and Iran, the states that since 2015 have shown the highest activity in the tourism market of Azerbaijan.

Until recently, Iranian tourists were the third largest after Russian and Georgian tourists in Azerbaijan. However, last year recorded a 33% decline in tourist flow from Iran, and this negative trend continued this year too. Over eight months, 164.393 thousand tourists arrived from Iran to Azerbaijan (a decline of 11.6%). Experts attribute this trend to tightening international economic sanctions and depreciation of the Iranian national currency. In this regard, Iranian authorities were forced to tighten fiscal measures to prevent the export of currency from the country, which led to a 50% reduction in outbound tourism.

In turn, during eight months of this year, 263.994 thousand people visited Azerbaijan from the Middle East, and the number of Arab tourists decreased by 7.9%. Experts explain this fact with various objective and subjective reasons. According to the Chairman of the Azerbaijan Tourism Association (AzTA) Nahid Baghirov, the main reason was high competition in the tourism market, where Arab travellers are quite in demand. Therefore, the head of AzTA believes that Azerbaijan’s travel agencies, hotels and other participants in the tourism market should make every effort to maintain the interest of Arab tourists to travel to Baku and the country's regions, expand the list and improve the quality of services, diversify the geography of destinations, expand types of entertainment, and finally reduce prices, enhancing the competitive advantages of local tourism products.

Spokesman for the State Agency for Tourism Kanan Guluzadeh believes that since the Middle East is a politically unstable region, problems often arise in connection with leaving the country. The reduction in direct flights from Arab countries to Azerbaijan and the introduction of certain changes in the visa issuance procedure for Iraqi tourists, as well as a number of other objective factors influenced the reduction in the flow of Arab travellers.

Future goals

According to the majority of experts, a number of measures have yet to be implemented in Azerbaijan in order to improve quality standards and optimize price parameters in the tourism industry. Considerable work remains to be done here considering that Azerbaijan’s position in the ranking of tourism competitiveness of the World Economic Forum (WEF) has remained unchanged since 2017. This year Azerbaijan has maintained 71st place among 140 countries of the world, having slightly improved its average indicator from 2.7 points in 2017 to 3.8 points in 2019. According to the WEF rating, Azerbaijan has the weakest indicators for tourism services (96th place), environmental sustainability (97th), natural and cultural (96th), and natural resources (123rd).

It is not surprising that the need to improve the performance of tourism services is identified as the most important goal of the State Tourism Agency. “Developing the potential of the hotel sector and improving the quality of service are our main goals," Fuad Nagiyev said during the Intour summit in Baku in early September.

Given the Tourism Strategy-2023, Azerbaijan faces the task of doubling the inbound tourist flow in the next 4-5 years. “We work hard to increase the number of tourists to Azerbaijan. We expect that this year the tourist flow will increase by 8-10%. At the same time, we expect to increase the tourist flow to Azerbaijan by 4.5 million by 2022,” Fuad Naghiyev said, emphasizing that one of the main goals of the agency is to improve the quality of service so that tourists who visit Azerbaijan return to Azerbaijan again.

The concept of attracting tourists to Azerbaijan for 2018-2023 involves solving the problem by developing tourist relations with countries that provide the most massive tourist flow, as well as by expanding air connections, improving the quality of service and cheaper tourism products, diversifying regional destinations and types of recreation in Azerbaijan itself.