TRAVELLERS' HOLIDAY

Experts of numerous international organizations have long pointed to the rapid development of tourism in Azerbaijan. In a number of fields, for example, in terms of market growth in the industry and increasing the number of foreign tourists or hotel capacity, the country considerably exceeds the world average and takes one of the first places in the former Soviet Union. The achievements of national recreational businesses were presented at a recent republican conference on World Tourism Day, which has been marked at the official level in Azerbaijan since 2001.

The goal is 10% of GDP 

This World Tourism Day is being marked under the motto of "Tourism and Water: Protecting our Common Future" as part of the International Year of Water Cooperation marked by the UN. The conference demonstrated a video message from the Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Taleb Rifai, who highlighted the close relationship between ensuring the rational use and protection of water resources and the activities of hotels, restaurants, leisure facilities and services.

"About 10 years ago, most of the regions of Azerbaijan experienced a severe lack of clean drinking water. However, the numerous projects to upgrade water supply systems and to clean water tanks implemented over the past few years have become a catalyst for the rapid development of modern tourism in the regions of our country," said Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfaz Qarayev. According to him, the joint efforts of environmental and tourism agencies, as well as owners of recreational areas to maintain cleanliness on the coast, in lakes and rivers of the country, the environmental condition of which is now the main guarantor of the success of a large part of the domestic tourist industry, are equally consistent.

Over the past years, Azerbaijan has managed to significantly improve the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the tourism industry, which had a positive effect on the statistics of tourism. This promise became the leitmotif of the speeches by most of the participants in the conference. "Over the past decade, Azerbaijan has formed the basic elements of the tourism industry: modern hotels and recreational areas have been commissioned and accompanying recreational services have been created. All this contributed to increasing the inflow of foreign tourists and causing a marked growth in profits in the industry," Qarayev said. Quoting the UNWTO, he said that in the first half of the year the country was visited by 1.196 million tourists, which shows an almost 10-per-cent increase over the same period last year. And at the end of this year, the number of foreigners who visited Azerbaijan could rise to 12%. For comparison, the number of foreign tourists who visited the country during 2005 was equal to the indicators of the first half of this year, while about 12 years ago, it barely reached 436,000 people.

 According to the minister of tourism, Azerbaijan holds one of the world's best positions in the rate of annual growth on the recreational market - today it reaches 10%, which is almost 3 times higher than the world average. According to the latest data, the country has 516 hotels that can accommodate 33,000 tourists at a time. Currently, about 60 new hotels of various levels are under construction. After their commissioning, the capacity of hotels will increase by 10,000-15,000 beds or by 40%. By the pace of building hotel infrastructure, Azerbaijan is also one of the regional leaders. According to some experts, maintaining the current pace of development and using all untapped recreational resources, the tourism sector will be able to provide up to 10 % of GDP in the next decade.

Not so long ago, Azerbaijan was elected to the board of the UNWTO for the first time, and this, according to the minister, imposes special responsibility on our country. "Our primary goal is to raise the standards of Azerbaijani tourism to the world level: every year in the summer season the Ministry of Tourism monitors market participants, identifying violations and strengthening the weakest links of the industry," said Qarayev . "Last summer, we revoked the licences of four hotels, where serious violations were revealed, and officially warned the owners of 40 other hotels, giving them a limited time to eliminate the shortcomings."

According to the minister, after tightening control over compliance with licensing rules, about 400 hotel-type facilities received a licence while the documents of the more than 100 remaining facilities are under consideration.

Among the priority areas for the Ministry of Tourism are the creation of a convention bureau, which the Ministry of Tourism will task with the organization of international conferences and forums. Another trend is the further development of the system of electronic visas: today this activity involves about 15 travel agencies, which have provided about 3,500 online visas to foreign nationals since the early summer.

In parallel, the Ministry is developing a new law "On Tourism", on the basis of which it is planned to draft a third state programme for the development of the industry. One component of the new state programme must be the further development of specialized tourist zones. "Today, the country has already formed three tourist areas of international level - in Qabala, Qusar and Naftalan. And in subsequent years, similar tourist centres will be set up in the South and Central Aran region, in the Naxcivan Autonomous Republic, etc.," said the minister of tourism.

Winter Centre 

The experience gained by Azerbaijan in the development of zonal tourist centres indicates the high potential of this form of organization of the recreational sector. As an illustrative example we can cite the development of the tourist industry in Qusar and Qabala districts located on the spur of the Greater Caucasus. For example, the successful implementation of a world-class recreational project was the opening in December last year of the first phase of the Sahdag summer-winter tourist complex, which received about 65,000 clients - mostly citizens of Azerbaijan - in the past winter and summer season. Furthermore, experts of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism believe that the recreational potential that is being created will make it possible to establish a steady influx of foreign tourists in the winter period in the near future.

These plans are also furthered by consistent efforts to promote tourism in the north-west of the country - Qabala District. In recent years with the efforts of private investors, this agricultural region has turned into a real gem of Azerbaijani tourism. Qabala resorts and recreational areas are annually visited by about 30,000 foreign tourists, while the number of our compatriots is several times higher. In recent years, nearly two dozen hotels and resorts have been built, an amusement park that has no analogues in the region has been created and an international airport that is able to receive all types of aircraft has been opened here, which is an important factor in stimulating the inflow of foreign tourists into the north-western region of the country and securing the long-term profitability of the tourist hub that is being created here.

Judging by the scale of the plan, the core of the tourism industry in Qabala should be the country's second summer-winter tourist complex Tufan, the first facilities of which will be put into operation by the end of this year. "In the coming months, the construction of the summer-winter tourist facility in Qabala will be completed. The basic infrastructure of the complex is being formed by a local company, while negotiations are under way to attract foreign investors in order to expand the hotel capacity of the recreational area," said Azerbaijan's First Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Vaqif Aliyev.

The Tufan summer-winter complex is designed for daily service to three thousand people. The total length of the 10 bands of the ski slope is 18 km, and 5 of the 8 planned cable car stations have been built here. All bands of the ski slope will be equipped with "artificial snow" systems and mechanisms to lift tourists to the mountain peaks. Not far from the ski resort, it is planned to build a sports and recreation complex - Golf Resort, a golf course, a golf academy and a golf club.

With the commissioning of the second ski resort, Azerbaijan will acquire the status of a regional centre in winter holidays. This will not only lead to an increase in the flow of tourists, especially in winter, but will also help us and neighbouring countries to use these bases for training athletes and in the future for international competitions.