Azernews.Az

By Aygul Salmanova

In recent years, tourism has become one of the leading sectors of the non-oil sector of the Azerbaijani economy. The number of foreign tourists coming to Azerbaijan last year increased by 20 percent and reached the highest figure recorded 2.7 million.

Mahir Gahramanov, head of sector in the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said the measures taken in the field of tourism in the country in 2017, especially shopping festival that took place for the first time, had an important role in achieving such a high growth.

“Both nationals and tourists have widely benefited by the festival and the capital of Azerbaijan has already become one of the world’s fastest growing festivals,” he said.

He also noted that the work on the implementation of the “Strategic Road Map on the development of specialized tourism industry in the Republic of Azerbaijan” has also successfully implemented.

“Construction of a new tourism infrastructure, issuing investment incentive certificates, as well as increasing the number of tourism services are a clear example of this,” he said.

Gahramanov also noted that the number of tourism companies operating in our country has grown, but the service provided by all of the tourism companies is not at the desired level.

“Relevant recommendations are given to eliminate this situation, efforts are being made to increase the range and quality of services,” he added.

Today tourism is developing with high speed in Azerbaijan, with a contribution of 4.5 percent to the national GDP. The country witnesses more than 2 million annual foreign tourist arrivals and thousands of domestic tourism visits.

The beautiful nature of Azerbaijan, hospitality of its people, the country’s capital with its super modern and ancient buildings draws the attention of all tourists visiting this South Caucasian country. Moreover, the recent devaluation of Azerbaijani manat much facilitated coming of tourists to the Land of Fire. All this is expected to soon place the country amongst major tourism countries of the world.

The government of Azerbaijan has made developing tourism a priority, while a number of tourist facilities have been built in the regions, and cultural and historical reserves have been set up or restored.

Simplification of visa regime also plays a major role in the development of tourism in Azerbaijan. Currently, citizens of a number of countries get visas right at the Azerbaijani airports, while other tourists can visit the country by getting online tourist visas.

Thanks to all these, the country has improved its tourism performance in the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017 released by experts of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The country is placed 71st among the most improved economies in 2017, rising 13 spots in the global ranking.

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