Azerbaijan sees drop in Central Asian tourist numbers

Azerbaijan has seen a decline in the number of tourists arriving from Central Asian countries in the first nine months of 2025.

Between January and September, 162,106 visitors from the region travelled to Azerbaijan, down 10.2% compared with the same period in 2024, when 180,528 tourists arrived, Caliber.Az reports, citing local media.

According to the State Tourism Agency of Azerbaijan, the largest number of visitors came from Kazakhstan, totalling 78,127 – a 9.5% decrease year-on-year. Uzbekistan contributed 44,490 tourists (-9%), Turkmenistan 24,029 (-27.2%), Kyrgyzstan 8,243 (-5.4%), while Tajikistan bucked the trend with 7,217 visitors, marking an 18.4% increase.

Overall, 1,948,380 international tourists visited Azerbaijan during the January–September period, representing a slight 1.76% decline compared with 1,983,274 visitors over the same months in 2024.

Last year, tourist arrivals from Central Asia had grown significantly. In 2024, 180,528 Central Asian visitors came to Azerbaijan, up 34.13% from 2023. Kazakhstan led the increase with 86,304 visitors (+48.62%), followed by Uzbekistan with 46,396 (+16.98%), Turkmenistan with 33,020 (+26.93%), Kyrgyzstan with 8,715 (+49.51%), and Tajikistan with 6,093 (+21.62%).

Between 2017 and 2024, a total of 726,258 tourists from Central Asia visited Azerbaijan, including 331,428 from Kazakhstan, 182,310 from Uzbekistan, 178,236 from Turkmenistan, 30,011 from Kyrgyzstan, and 24,246 from Tajikistan.

By Aghakazim Guliyev