THE RESORT SEASON

Over the last decade Azerbaijan has managed to lay the basic foundations of the tourist industry. Modern hotels and recreation zones are being constructed with the concomitant recreational facilities, and training courses for qualified staff in this sector have been set up. As the country's potential as a tourist destination has grown, Azerbaijan has become increasingly attractive to holiday-makers from all over the world. At the same time, the number of Azeri citizens holidaying abroad has markedly increased.

The country's recreational facilities have been developing at an impressive rate. Today the country boasts some 514 hotels and boarding houses and the number of beds available has tripled, now exceeding 35,000. At the end of last year some facilities at the Shahdag [Sahdag] alpine ski-ing resort complex were opened, while construction has started on seven five-star hotels in the in the capital alone over the last two years. It is noteworthy that the last year was extremely productive with the number of foreign tourists up 10-12 per cent not, only in the capital but throughout the country. According to the estimates of experts from the Ministry of Tourism this flourishing tourist trade is the result of the far-reaching facilities in the regions. Something like three quarters of all the hotels and recreation facilities erected in the country are to be found in outlying areas. The minister of tourism, Abulfaz Qarayev, has thinks that the measures adopted last year have resulted in a record number of 2.4m foreign visiting the country, including 1.9m tourists. He added that the number of Azeris travelling abroad had increased 16 per cent compared with last year. Taking into account the rapid development of the tourist industry, we are forecasting that the number of foreign tourists visiting our country will grow by 70-80 per cent in the next five to six years, he said.

In a nutshell, a sound infrastructure has been set up in the country for the overall development of tourism and the main task today is to improve the standard of service and bring the prices in line with world rates. The staff of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism have been carrying out joint comprehensive monitoring of tourist venues in the regions for four years now. The ultimate goal of these surveys is to pinpoint and eliminate the shortcomings in the services offered to tourists at the very start of the holiday season. This monitoring will, moreover, not only facilitate the provision of better service, but will also bring about a reduction in prices. Last year at the height of the season there was a shortage of beds at a number of popular resorts, but, in spite of that, the Ministry of Tourism managed to hold down the prices.

The routine checks, which started in the second half of May this year on the threshold on the holiday season embraced 38 towns and regions in the country. It is obvious from the first results of the monitoring that the recreation facilities are prepared to lower prices by 10-20 per cent compared with last summer's prices.

The willingness of the local hoteliers to lower prices has been confirmed by the Association of Tourism of Azerbaijan (AzTa). "In the current year our experts have set about their own seasonal monitoring; these surveys have already been carried out in Qabala, Quba and Qusar and are at the present time being done in Lankaran, Astara, and Masalli. It is noteworthy that the current prices that tourists are charged are no higher than last year's," Nahid Bagirov, AsTa's head reported.

In the current season the tourists are mainly heading for the country's southern regions: in Lankaran region alone 13 new camping sites have opened since the beginning of the tourist season. Holiday facilities have been developing apace in neighbouring Masalli and Lerik regions. A 20-per-cent drop in prices has been registered at hotels in the southern region, where considerable numbers of local and especially foreign tourists can be seen. The average price for  a holiday cottage has fallen from 60 to 40 manats, while hotel rooms cost from 30 to 50 manats per night. Moreover, visitors staying for more than three days get an additional discount.

More people going abroad

The dynamic growth in people's incomes and the subsequent drop in travel agency prices at the country's 170 travel bureaux has led to many more Azeri citizens spending their holidays abroad. Last year, according to the Ministry of Tourism, something like 3.8m Azeris went abroad, 2.8m of whom or almost 74 per cent were tourists, based on hotel data. Last year, according to the Central Bank of Azerbaijan, more than half of the total tourist turnover, i.e.$2,477bn, was spent on services rendered to Azeri citizens abroad. By way of comparison, in 2011, this figure was $1,689bn, and in 2010 only $745m. These figures show quite strikingly how foreign tourism has increased in popularity and, what is most important, the positive progress on the local market, making it easier for greater numbers of the middle class to holiday abroad.

When we talk about people holidaying abroad, it should be stated that the most popular destination for Azeri tourists is Turkey, which is visited by more than 42 per cent. Something like 14 per cent go to Russia, and slightly less than 10 per cent spend their holidays in Georgia. Turkey's popularity stems from  its  traditional combination of accessible prices and top-quality service, as well as the two countries' traditional similarity in language and culture. Russia has been a popular destination for many years now owing to its extensive Azeri diaspora. The numbers of tourists visiting Georgia are increasing owing to the comparatively low prices, as well as the convenience of its geographical proximity, which means lower travel costs. The five most popular countries are Germany (4.6 per cent), the United Arab Emirates, or to be more exact, Dubai (4.1 per cent), Ukraine (3.3 per cent), and France (2.5 per cent). The remaining tourists from our country choose Italy, Spain, the Czech Republic, Great Britain, Iran, Egypt and to a lesser extent the far-flung countries of South-East Asia.

As regards the prospects for foreign tourism this year, our holiday-makers can expect some pleasant surprises, among them cut prices at a number of destinations, the prices being at the very least no higher than last year. The reason for this is that the hotel chains in the countries of the Maghreb, in which Eastern Europe and to some extent Turkey are losing money, are not going to raise prices. This applies in particular to destinations which are really popular with our holiday-makers such as Turkey and Egypt, to judge from the prices on the travel agency websites, which have even fallen somewhat. Back in the spring a number of Turkish hoteliers  were offering 30-per-cent discounts to our tour operators. Taking into account the continuing political turmoil in the neighbouring country, which is already making Istanbul and the resorts of the Sea of Marmara a less attractive destination, it feels as though the low prices will remain so until the end of the season. A week-long trip to that country for one person does on average cost less than 500 manats.

The travel agencies have become embroiled in a discount "war", which is being waged for the second year now between the tour operators and airlines of Eastern Europe. "The existence of

of discount airlines in Azerbaijan will boost the influx of tourists from Europe and will allow local travel agencies to offer cheaper holidays to our citizens," AzTa head Nahid Bagirov stated.

In short, the start of the new holiday season promises quantitative and qualitative improvements in the tourist industry, one of the main sectors on which the government has been staking over the last few years, in its striving to diversify the country's economy.