Nakhchivan and Karabakh - future destinations for affordable winter holidays Review by Caliber.Az

Winter tourism is a relatively new direction for the leisure sector of Azerbaijan, emerging a little over a decade ago. The opportunity for skiing and recreation appeared with the construction of winter-summer resorts - "Shahdag" and "Tufandag" in the Gusar and Gabala districts of the country. The first facilities of the Agbulag ski resort in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic were opened two years ago. Recently, the country announced the opening of the winter tourist season, which this year had an unusually warm start. Winter tourism in Azerbaijan is still the most expensive type of domestic holiday. However, it is overcoming the effects of the pandemic crisis and is focusing mainly on attracting foreign guests from Russia, other post-Soviet and Arab countries.

The development of winter tourism in the country dates back just 11 years to the opening of a 2,000-hectare summer-winter tourist complex near the town of Gusar, 2 1/2 hours by car from Baku. At an altitude of 1,500-2,500 metres, 32 kilometres of ski and snowboard slopes have been built, several lifts installed and five hotels opened one after the other. In 2014, another ski resort was opened near the city of Gabala, with several gondola and telemix lifts, a dozen slopes of varying difficulty and other infrastructure at altitudes ranging from 950 to 1,920 metres.

Although winter sports are not traditional for our country, the interest in holidays in snowy mountain landscapes was to the taste of citizens who wanted to capture themselves and their loved ones in ski equipment against the backdrop of the spurs of the Greater Caucasus with the obligatory photo report on social networks. In 2013-2014, immediately after the opening of the resorts, people were driven by simple curiosity, in the subsequent period a fairly stable pool of fans of skiing and snowboarding on snow-covered slopes was formed.

As a result of the devaluation of the national currency, holidays in the country's ski centres became more than twice as cheap in dollar and euro terms, attracting large numbers of foreigners during the cold season. Especially during the winter period of 2016-2019, the number of visitors to the ski resort of Gusar increased from 50 to 60 to an average level of 110 to 120 thousand. It is worth noting that about half of the guests were foreigners, including tourists from Russia, several CIS countries and, in particular, from far-away countries - the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, as well as some European countries.

According to many guests and experts, both Azerbaijan's resorts are close to the indicators of Swiss, German and Austrian resorts in terms of infrastructure and range of services. Moreover, the infrastructure and equipment of domestic ski resorts are much more modern and qualitative, their wear is minimal, and the level of comfort of hotels, restaurants and SPAs is at the international level, unlike the old European resorts that have been in operation for more than half a century. At the same time, over the last decade, the industry has been supplied with professional national staff, first and foremost about one and a half hundred qualified ski instructors have been trained.

Alas, but the pandemic and the subsequent global recreational sector downturn, quarantine restrictions on passenger air travel collapsed the 2020 figures for winter tourism. Compared to the pre-pandemic period, the 2021 winter season was also unsuccessful, with visits to our winter resorts down almost fivefold at the peak of the crisis.

As the recreation industry recovered in the winter of 2022-2023, much effort was made to attract foreign visitors, according to the leading Russian analytical agency "TourStat", Azerbaijan ranked second among the most popular and attractive CIS countries for winter holidays in the Top 5 ranking, behind only Kazakhstan. This trend continued in the autumn of this year: specialists of the State Tourism Agency (STA) and the Tourism Bureau participated in several profile international exhibitions and forums, promoting the opportunities of winter tourism in Azerbaijan, demonstrating the opportunities and products of our ski resorts in the UK, Türkiye, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. This advertising and promotion was particularly active in Russian cities, providing visible results: citizens of the Russian Federation booked about half of the places in the hotels of the Shahdagh Centre for January and February 2024. A similar trend began to take shape last year, against the backdrop of the sanctions standoff and many restrictions on Schengen visas, as a result, Russian tourists are increasingly actively exploring winter holidays in Azerbaijan.

A series of events dedicated to opening the new winter tourist season in Azerbaijan were recently held with the support of the State Tourism Agency and attended by the media. During the media tour, it was noted that to expand access to global tourism markets and increase tourist attractiveness, this year the Shahdagh complex was elected a member of the Eurasian Alliance of Mountain Resorts, which includes profile facilities from Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Cooperation with the Alliance will have a positive impact on the prospects for the development of winter tourism in our country, and the International Ski Mountaineering Federation (ISMF) International Ski Mountaineering Series competitions scheduled for March 2024 will serve the same purpose. To hold various international ski competitions in the current season, a special new slope of 1800 metres will be opened in Shahdag.

Generally, the work done in the last two years to popularise winter tourism and promote these destinations abroad has produced visible results. However, the successful development of winter sports and recreation in our country also faces certain inertia factors. One of them is the negative impact of global climate change: Azerbaijan has been experiencing increasing desertification for several years in a row. The amount of winter precipitation is decreasing. These processes were visible in the current, unprecedentedly warm autumn. Even in December, the air temperature in Azerbaijan is several degrees above the climatic norm. A major obstacle to the development of ski resorts, which several countries have faced in recent years, is the lack or insignificance of snow in winter. In particular, ski resorts in our country have to bear considerable energy costs for artificial snowing of ski slopes, which reduces the intervals of operation of the equipment. In Shahdag, the number of snow generators has increased from 449 to 488.

The increased cost of maintaining the required snow cover, among other things, reduces the window of opportunity for discounting in domestic resorts. Winter tourism is considered to be one of the most expensive forms of leisure in the world, and the cost of coupons for the same places in the Alps is several times more than comparable services in Azerbaijan. However, compared to the average income of the population, the prices for wintering in our country cannot be called affordable. In particular, a three-day holiday with bed and breakfast for two people, depending on the level of the hotel, does not cost more than a thousand manats, but taking into account paying for meals in restaurants and other additional services can cost more.

There is no doubt that the expansion of the export of tourist services is one of the most important tasks of the national leisure sector, but equally important is the increase in the supply of more affordable winter holiday products. In this regard, it should be noted that the average nominal monthly wage in Azerbaijan as of November 1 was 921.1 manats ($541). To this end, the State Agency for Tourism has drawn up a plan for the development of the tourism potential of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (NAR). The main advantage of ski resorts in the NAR is their extremely low prices, which are an attraction not only for citizens of our country but also for guests from neighbouring Türkiye. No less promising is the creation of affordable winter resorts and ski bases in the liberated territories. The greatest potential for the creation of ski slopes is in the Kalbajar district, and the development of winter tourism is on the agenda for Lachin, Shusha, Hadrut, Tugh and the Azikh region.