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More hotels needed to meet rising tourist flow

30 August 2017 11:43 (UTC+04:00)
More hotels needed to meet rising tourist flow

By Amina Nazarli

Baku is a dream city, visited by more than 2.5 million tourists yearly. Azerbaijan’s capital city is relatively undiscovered Caucasus gem for many travelers, and that’s why one will have to take care not only of the cultural program, local sights, but also about housing in Baku.

Accommodation plays a central role in tourism industry as it is a vital and fundamental part of tourism supply. Comfortable hotels and accommodation facilities contribute to popularizing any tourist destination, as travelers require location where they can rest and revive during their travel.

Hotels are the base of tourism, even if they are not always the most popular form of accommodation. However, many who travel to unknown places prefer hotels because of their safety and amenities.

Today, Azerbaijan can accommodate about 40,000 tourists in its 575 hotels, which include a series of luxury hotels – Excelsior, Hilton, Four Seasons, Fairmont, JW Marriott – as well as several budget hotels for cost-conscious travelers. Moreover, 25 hostels and 92 apartments for tourists operate in Baku.

However, the number of hotels needs to be increased due to the rising tourist flow. Only in January-May, some 956,000 tourists arrived in the country, while last year this figure was 768,000.

The growth of tourism in Azerbaijan and increasing number of tourists has necessitated construction of more hotels in the country.

Muzaffar Agakarimov, the adviser of the Chairman of Azerbaijani Tourism Association AzTA stresses that it is necessary to increase the number of hotels of different types and levels to more than 1,000.

Availability of 575 hotels in the country, according to the expert, is very small and it is necessary to build new ones.

“It has been repeatedly noted the importance of attracting more tourists to Azerbaijan, but it should be noted that there are very few hotels in Baku, there are about 155 hotels in Baku, which is quite low. There are some hotels in Azerbaijan which have 7-10 rooms,” he said.

Bulks of the hotels located in the country are 5-3 stars, which sometimes creates inconvenience for low-budget tourists. Here you can see the price list of some of them.

Therefore rent of private apartments is gaining popularity and for some this is the best way to spend vacation in Azerbaijan. Local residents lease out houses both in the center of Baku and on the outskirts of the city.

Meanwhile, the Government seriously decided to deal with this issue and the construction of hotels of different levels is on the agenda since last year.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

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