SUMMER GUESTS

Azerbaijan’s tourism sector absorbed the negative impact of the protracted energy crisis relatively easily. Today this booming industry is getting to be a driver for other spheres of the national economy including the services, trade and transport. A considerable growth in the number of foreign tourists from the post-Soviet space, Iran, and the Middle East countries indicates the positive changes in the recreational sector. These changes were facilitated not only by the simplification of the visa regime, cheap flights, optimized services and tariffs in the hotel sector, but also international sports and trading events held in Azerbaijan.

"The tourism sector of Azerbaijan is ready for the opening of the summer season, which starts on June 15 and will last until September 15. This summer we expect more guests visiting our country than last year, and the growth of tourists is expected mainly from the Arab states, Russia and Iran," said Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfaz Garayev at a recent meeting with travel companies organized by the National Bureau for Tourism Promotion (NBTP).

Such optimism is quite justified, since the realities of the post-oil period in just two years radically transformed the development of the Azerbaijani tourist sector. The devaluation of manat made services for foreign tourists in local hotels, recreation areas, restaurants, entertainment sector more attractive. Also, the simplification of visa procedures has facilitated the development of budget tourism and significantly increased the number of tourists from the ‘near-abroad’, primarily from Russia, as well as Iran and a number of Arab states. Indirectly, a number of other factors contributed to the popularization of tourism in Azerbaijan: in particular, the reduction of the Russian tourist flow to Egypt and Turkey, the rise of tourism costs in Europe (after the devaluation of the ruble). Moreover, security problems and political confrontation in the Middle East, as well as the lifting of international sanctions from Iran, have also spurred the tourist exchange between the states of the near abroad. The efforts of the Ministry of Tourism and affiliated agencies in promoting the recreational potential of Azerbaijan at tourism exhibitions in Dubai and Sharjah have contributed to this process. It is also worth mentioning the introduction of the ASAN Visa system. Now, the foreign tourists receive entry visas to Azerbaijan automatically, within three days maximum. Finally, the opening of local air transportation market for the low-cost companies facilitated the access of foreign travelers to Azerbaijan.

"The flow of tourists to Azerbaijan increased by 25% in the first quarter of this year, due to the stability in the country, development of modern infrastructure, operation of six international airports, construction of roads and hotels, and the development of medical tourism. ASAN Visa has issued 40,000 visas for citizens of more than 80 countries," said President Ilham Aliyev at an extended government meeting held in April.

Apparently, the trend of incoming tourism dominating in the last two years will intensify in 2017. "During the five months of this year, about 960 thousand tourists arrived in Azerbaijan compared to 768 thousand people during the same period last year. This means almost 200 thousand more tourists. The growth of tourist inflow in the last quarter is particularly related to the simplification of the visa regime with almost 90 countries of the world," says A. Garayev. He believes that more guests will come to Azerbaijan this summer, and they will rest not only in Baku, but also in the regions of the country.

The recent monitoring of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism confirmed the attractiveness of tourism in Azerbaijan: the hotels and recreational facilities in Baku and the regions maintain quite acceptable prices at a relatively high level of service.

The majority of foreign guests prefer visiting Baku and Absheron peninsula, which have about 130 hotels and similar facilities with a total number of about 12 thousand beds. Both the foreign tourists and our nationals can check in more than 400 tourist sites in the regions (about 23 thousand places for accommodation), where prices are even lower.

"The analysis of prices in all Azerbaijani regions showed that a number of recreational facilities are available for ₼10-30, or ₼100 for a family of five or six people. The cost for a person is about ₼15. I don’t think it is possible to have rest for less than that amount," believes A. Garayev.

These factors contribute to a significant increase in the interest of tourists from the CIS, in particular from Russia, for whom rest in Azerbaijan is becoming more popular. Recently, the leading Russian analytical agency TourStat included Baku (together with Minsk, Prague, Tbilisi and Tallinn) in the top five cities by popularity among Russian tourists for the summer weekend. According to TurStat, Russian tourists come for an average of 2.5 days on summer holidays in Baku and spend $85 per day on rest.

Russian tourists are especially attracted by the races at the Formula 1 Grand Prix, which will be held from June 23 to June 25, and the "Zhara" music festival on July 27-30.

TurStat included Azerbaijan in the top three directions of gastronomic tourism popular among Russian tourists: a one-week tour from Russia to Azerbaijan with air tickets will cost an average of $800.

According to TurStat, another Azerbaijani region Naftalan is also included in top five health resorts, which is visited by more than ten thousand tourists a year, half of which are foreign visitors. The health tourists visiting Azerbaijan stay for two weeks and spend $50 per person per day on average. The Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) states that this year the demand for rest in Azerbaijan increased by 30% - mainly due to the popularization of the sanatorium and resort facilities: the most popular resorts in Russia are Naftalan, Galaalti, Yalamin and Lankaran seaside, beaches of Absheron peninsula.

"The sphere of tourism in Azerbaijan is developing very rapidly, new directions are being formed: the shopping festival has just finished and the food festival is being held behind it," said Dmitry Saveliev, head of the Russia-Azerbaijan Friendship Parliamentary Friendship Group, who emphasized that Azerbaijanis' Azerbaijan is a growing number of Russians.

By the way, the prospects of new directions in tourism development are celebrated not only by Russian tourists, but also by guests from many regions of the world. So, from April 10 to May 10, 2017 in Baku was the first Baku Shopping Festival, which was attended by about 260 thousand people, including a considerable number of foreign guests. This event, held for the first time in the South Caucasus and Central Asia region, embraced several areas: trade, tourism, entertainment, fashion and culture.

"Azerbaijan's budget revenues from the first shopping festival amounted to ₼5.6 million, while the state spent ₼700,000 for conducting this event. The total expenses did not exceed ₼1 million. The revenues from the shopping festival exceeded expenses by almost six times," commented Minister of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan Abulfaz Garayev on the results of the Baku Shopping Festival.

Numerous shopping centers of the city offered special discounts to the guests during the festival. The nationals of Azerbaijan and foreign tourists could enjoy a tax-free system when buying goods worth one hundred manats and above. The total turnover of 205 stores working under the tax-free system amounted to about ₼18.17 million, while the amount of refunded VAT was ₼1.8 million. In general, the results of the first shopping festival are recognized as satisfactory, and the next event will be held in October this year.

Another feature of the recent years, which contributed to the influx of foreign tourists to Azerbaijan, was the organization of international sports events demonstrating the country's ability to organize complex events and ensure the reception of tens of thousands of guests at the highest level. "The sports factor plays a very big role in the development of each country, in particular, every international sport competition increases the number of tourists coming to Azerbaijan," said Aydin Mirzazade, a member of the Milli Mejlis (parliament) of Azerbaijan.

The process of popularizing Azerbaijani tourism through sporting events began in 2015 with the holding of the first European Games. In May 2017, Baku hosted the 4^th Islamic Solidarity Games. The opening of the current summer tourist season will coincide with the organization of the Formula-1 Grand Prix. Baku does not hold the races for the first time. Formula-1 is certainly one of the most significant events in the sphere of tourism in 2017, which will attract thousands of fans, sports teams, and representatives of the media, promoting the tourism potential of Azerbaijan.

Specialists of the operating company, Baku City Circuit, which is the organizer of Formula-1 in Baku, believe that this year they will show an even greater interest to the races in Baku and this will attract a significant number of tourists. According to Abulfaz Garayev, large hotel networks operating in Azerbaijan can be filled by 95% during the Grand Prix (June 23-25). The hotels have already began receiving numerous orders.