Azernews.Az

By Mirsaid Ibrahimzade

Azerbaijan remains one of the favorite destinations of tourists from the CIS countries.

TurStat analytical agency has presented a ranking of mountain resorts in Russia and the CIS countries for active recreation and trekking in the summer.

According to the ranking, the Shahdag mountain resort in Azerbaijan takes one of the leading positions in preferences of Russian tourists. To be exact, the mountain resort positioned 4th in the top-10 of the most popular destinations for Russian tourists.

With the average living costs of 5,000 rubles ($79.38) per day, Shahdag resort competes with the resorts of Krasnaya Polyana in Sochi, which are visited by more than 1.5 million tourists every summer and are the most popular for summer trekking among Russians.

Along with trekking, mountain biking, quad biking, zip line and horseback tours are popular for mountain recreation in Shahdag.

The tourist complex Shahdag is located on the territory of the Shahdag National Park in the Gusar region of Azerbaijan near the mountain of the same name, 32 km from the center of Gusar district. The complex with an area of 2,058 hectares is the first mountain-ski resort in the history of Azerbaijan.

The infrastructure of the complex is very rich - there are a lot of hotels, restaurants, ski trails, lifts, etc. Currently there are 5 hotels here - Zirve (4 stars), Shahdag Hotel & Spa (5 stars), Gaya Residences (family residences), PIK Palas (5 stars) and Park Chalet (4 stars). In addition, in all seasons there are several cable cars, many cafes, restaurants, and plenty of entertainment at the services of vacationers.

In general, in January-June 2019, Azerbaijan was visited by 1.4 million foreign tourists, which was a growth by 86,000 tourists or 6.5 percent compared to the same period of 2018, Azerbaijan State Tourism Agency said in a message.

More than half of the tourists visiting Azerbaijan accounted for Russia and Georgia. In particular, the tourist flow from Russia amounted to 414,000 people (increase of 2.6 percent), and from Georgia – to 342,800 people (increase of 22.8 percent).

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Mirsaid Ibrahimzade is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @MirsaidIbrahim1

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