Confident start: Azerbaijan overcomes recession in tourism sector Caliber.Az review

Last year, Azerbaijan's tourism sector was able to overcome most of the challenges posed by the COVID-2019 pandemic, and inbound tourism indicators achieved tangibly high growth. According to the report of the Cabinet of Ministers for 2023 published recently, the dynamically recovering foreign tourist flow exceeded the previous year's figures by almost a third and made up about two-thirds of the pre-pandemic indicators. Today, specialists of the relevant government agencies are actively promoting recreational products in the CIS, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, and already in early 2024, this has ensured a multiple growth in several destinations.

In a relatively short period of time, Azerbaijan has managed to form a relatively developed tourism industry. Our country is one of the leaders of the Caspian region in terms of the number of five-star hotels of famous brands, high-class recreation areas and restaurants, mountain and balneological resorts, as well as the number of modern airports in the regions. Relying on a strong recreational infrastructure, as well as mechanisms for simplified visa procedures and the availability of budget destinations, in pre-crisis 2019, an absolute record was set for all years of independence: 3.2 million foreign tourists entered the country.

Unfortunately, Azerbaijan's tourism sector suffered significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, and only in 2022, starting from a low base, it was possible to achieve a two-fold increase in inbound (incoming) tourism indicators. Last year, it was possible to consolidate these achievements: according to the Cabinet of Ministers' report for 2023 published recently, foreign tourist traffic was restored at 65 per cent compared to the period preceding the pandemic. Last year, Azerbaijan was visited by almost 2.086 million foreign guests from 187 countries, which was 30.2 per cent higher than the previous year's figures. According to the State Statistics Committee, last year most of the foreign tourists stayed in hotels and hotel-type facilities in Baku, followed by Gabala, Guba, Lankaran, Gusar and Shabran districts.

Increasing tourism is identified as a key objective for the country, and this vector is considered an important export direction of the non-oil sector, as well as a source of foreign exchange earnings in the long term. In this context, the "Socio-Economic Development Strategy of Azerbaijan for 2022-2026" formulates the task to increase the share of tourism in the country's non-oil GDP by 1.5 times compared to 2019, increasing the share of industry revenues by an additional 20 per cent over the next four years. According to the calculations of the State Tourism Agency of Azerbaijan, in the medium term, the inbound tourist flow in the country is planned to reach 4 million people, and domestic tourism indicators - up to 6 million people.

In order to achieve the set goals in the post-pandemic period, the State Tourism Agency, the Tourism Board and other relevant departments of the country are taking steps to open new flights to the CIS countries and especially to Central Asia (CA) and Indochina, where local tourism products are also promoted at tourism exhibitions and forums. For the same purpose, Azerbaijan is developing promising destinations - ecological, rural, wine, mountain, balneological recreation. The development of the tourism potential of the Karabagh region is on the way, where the design and construction of hotels, recreation areas and balneological resorts have already started in several places. At the same time, serious steps are being taken to accelerate the process of certification and awarding stars to hotels and hotel-type facilities. And what is important, work is underway to improve the qualifications of industry personnel, train new specialists taking into account modern trends, and implement the best international practices in this area.

Judging by the indicators for the beginning of 2024, the measures taken demonstrate high efficiency: 165,800 tourists from 152 countries visited Azerbaijan in January 2024, which is 39.3 per cent more than in the same month last year. Neighbours in the region - Russia, Türkiye and Iran - traditionally occupy the first places in terms of the number of foreign travellers, accounting for 57 per cent of the total flow. They are followed by India, Georgia, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, UAE, Pakistan and a number of other states of Central Asia, the Middle East, etc. At the same time, the highest dynamics of visits last January was observed from Central Asian countries: due to the increase in the number of flights and expansion of the geography of flights, 11,510 tourists from Central Asia arrived in Azerbaijan, which is 2.16 times higher than the corresponding figures of last year. This was followed by tourists from the Persian Gulf - a 1.6-fold increase, the European Union - a 1.5-fold increase, and the number of visitors from CIS countries increased by 25.1 per cent.

Judging by the successful start, 2024 promises good dynamics of foreign tourist flow. The 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) is one of the reasons for this: about 70,000-80,000 conference participants, media representatives and other foreign guests are expected to arrive in Baku in autumn as part of the events of this international forum.

In turn, another important factor contributing to the improvement of inbound dynamics is related to the completion of the formation of the necessary recreational infrastructure and primary tourism potential in the pearl of the Karabakh region - the city of Shusha. Three high-class hotels - Qarabağ Hotel, Avan Shusha Plaza Hotel, Kharibulbul Hotel - have already been restored and are functioning here, and small boutique hotels, guest houses and hostels are also being built in the city and its suburbs. Over the past three years, many international conferences and meetings have been held in Shusha, many thousands of specialists from foreign delegations and media representatives have visited the city, and according to the estimates of the State Tourism Agency, in 2024 Shusha will be able to start receiving tourists from different parts of the world, primarily from friendly countries that are members of the Organisation of Turkic States (OTS) and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

The roadmap for tourism development for 2024-2026 was recently approved following talks between the Prime Ministers of the two countries, Ali Asadov and Mikhail Mishustin, and the most important goal of the document is to increase tourist traffic. This year, the State Tourism Agency and the Azerbaijan Tourism Board launched a series of events Luxury Travel Mart (Spring edition) aimed at informing the relevant structures of the CIS countries about the spring and summer tourist season in Azerbaijan, hotels in Baku and the regions, the potential of balneological resorts, excursions to the capital and its suburbs, etc. The cycle of events was continued on February 23 in Tashkent, February 26 in Almaty and March 1 in Moscow. Similar steps to promote our country's recreational potential continued in potentially attractive markets in the Middle East and Asia, including Saudi Arabia and India.

It is noteworthy that the relatively new Indian vector shows very high dynamics: in January 2024, 10,135 Indian citizens visited Azerbaijan, which is 147 per cent higher than last year's figures. Therefore, under the organisation of the State Tourism Agency and the Azerbaijan Tourism Board, about twenty representatives of the tourism industry of our country took part in the SATTE exhibition in New Delhi at the end of February, expanding business ties with Indian travel companies.