Azernews.Az

Thursday March 28 2024

Azerbaijan halves e-visas issuing term

4 February 2016 13:00 (UTC+04:00)
Azerbaijan halves e-visas issuing term

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan will be more accessible for the foreign tourists, since the country halved electronic visas issuing term.

Now those who want to visit the Land of Fire do not need to wait 10 days for the confirmation of their e-visas, as the duration of procedures reduced to 5 days.

New amendments were adopted at the plenary session of the Azerbaijan Cabinet of Ministers on February 1.

Azerbaijani MP Kamran Nabizada believes that this step will undoubtedly lead to an increase in the tourist flow to the country and the further development of the tourism sector.

“Naturally, incomes of enterprises and tourism facilities will increase. In general revenues to the state budget will also grow,” he said.

Nabizada underlined the importance to avoid delays and artificial barriers in the process of visa issuing.

“Such cases may generate negative image of the country in foreign tourists who want to visit Azerbaijan, and in some cases discourage them from traveling. I believe that a reduction in the period of visa procedures will give a big impetus to the development of tourism,” the MP said.

Switching to issuing e-visas regime since March 2013, significantly simplified lives of many tourists interested in visiting Azerbaijan.

At present, documents required for getting an electronic visa include a filled and signed e-Visa application form, Passport style colored photo (dimensions 3x4), a colored copy of Passport’s main page, and a copy of round-trip flight ticket or reservation.

Nabizada said necessary infrastructure, price and quality of services in this sector enabled to promote tourism in the country.

He suggested to discuss further prospects and measures for the development of foreign tourism in Azerbaijan.

The MP also touched upon the low-cost travel packages, recalling the World Tourism Organization’s report for 2014, which tells that 40 percent of the tourists in the world chose cheap travel packages, preferring living in hostels.

Cheap accommodations like hostels are popular in many European countries, where the cost of living varies between $5 to $10 and the MP stressed that Azerbaijan has large unrealized potentials in this field.

“To compare, the number of hostels in Georgia has reached 100, while in Azerbaijan only 5-6 hostels are operating. I think that construction of hostels will lead to the further development of tourism, increase in the number of small and medium-sized businesses, and create conditions for the opening of additional jobs,” Nabizada ended.

The construction of hostels is now one of the main steps for Azerbaijan, which has become a favorite destination for 2.5 million tourists visiting the country every year.

Land of Fire has a chain of luxury brand hotels including Jumeirah, Excelsior, Hilton, Four Seasons, Fairmont, JW Marriott, Kempinski, as well as some two-star and three-star hotels, however, construction of hostels will give extra opportunity for the country to boost the tourist flow.

--

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

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

Loading...
Latest See more