Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

Azerbaijan is planning to build two-and three-star branded hotels, the Culture and Tourism Ministry said on September 30.

While attending the 2015 International French Travel Market (IFTM) Top Resa, an international tourism exhibition based in Paris, a delegation from Azerbaijan met with Gauran Bhushan, the director general of development at the hotel chain Accor, the parent company of a chain of hotels including Novotel and Ibis.

The meeting resulted in an agreement to organize a major presentation of hotels for local businessman in Baku by the end of this year.

In addition, a memorandum of understanding to attract tourists to Azerbaijan was signed between the famous French company Alesta voyage and the Azerbaijani company Silk Way.

More and more new hotels are opening their doors in Azerbaijan’s capital and regions. At present, the country can accommodate over 35,000 tourists in its 530 hotels.

Azerbaijan features a series of luxury brand hotels -- Jumeirah, Excelsior, Hilton, Four Seasons, Fairmont, JW Marriott, Kempinski -- as well as many budget hotels for cost-conscious travellers.

Prices for accommodation in the country start from $15 and increase depending on hotel brand and amenities.

The Azerbaijan Tourism Association had already noted the need to build multi-room hostels, which exist in many other countries, in the near future. Foreign investors have already shown interest to this field, according to the Association.

Baku is home to several hostels, budget hotels designed for low-cost travel. Here, of course, tourists have to share a room with a few more people, but prices are much more affordable.

Earlier, the Tourism Ministry reported that prices had been reduced in a number of tourist facilities in Azerbaijan.

About one million tourists visited Azerbaijan in the first eight months of this year. Over 2 million tourists came to Azerbaijan last year, which resulted in about one billion manat (over $950,000 million) in revenue from tourism. In the near future, the country is expected to increase its tourist flow up to 5 million a year.

This year, Azerbaijan hosted the major sport event Baku 2015 European Games, which resulted in an over 8 percent rise in tourist flow in the summer season. In the next coming years, the country will also hold the Islamic Solidarity Games, the Formula 1 race, and the quarterfinals and three group games of the Euro 2020.

An increase in tourist flow to the Land of Fire is inevitable, which means that a change in the hotel infrastructure is certain.

__

Nigar Orujova is AzerNews’s staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @o_nigar

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz