Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan is the land where all paths meet, fully refuting disproving the old saying that, "West is West and East is East, and never the twain shall meet".

Situated on the Great Silk Road, and divided partially between Eastern Europe and Western Asia, Azerbaijan blended the best from both cultures, forming its own unique rich culture, that’s why its people are neither totally Eastern, nor totally Western.

Azerbaijan has long been called The Land of Fire because of the phenomena of "burning hillsides" caused by gas seeping through fissures in the earth.

Travelers always remember the romantic Maiden Tower in the center of Baku, dazzling Palace of Sheki Khans from Venetian glass, as well as the cradle of human civilization -- Gobustan with thousands of incredible petroglyphs.

Azerbaijan makes everything possible to use its natural advantages to develop the tourism sector of the country, implementing various projects and programs for attracting tourists to the Land of Fire. These efforts gave fruit and in a short period of time the country was able to raise the quality of its tourism sector.

For the past 10 years, the number of tourists visiting Azerbaijan increased by five times. Culture and Tourism Minister Abulfaz Garayev earlier make this statement speaking at the public debate on the topic "Tourism in Azerbaijan: strategic view".

He said that this figure is a very good indicator for a relatively small country like Azerbaijan, stressing that tourism is one of the priority spheres of non-oil sector of the Azerbaijani economy.

“Due to the measures taken over the past few years, the tourism industry of Azerbaijan is experiencing a period of development. Today, tourism, as one of the main areas of the global economy, is rapidly evolving.

After gaining independence, Azerbaijan has implemented large-scale projects for the development of the tourism sector, and many branded hotels have been operating.

“Today, 4.5 percent of the total gross domestic product falls for income from tourism. It is no accidentally that Azerbaijan ranked 36 among 141 countries in terms of human resources and labor market in the Index of competitiveness of travel and tourism sector in 2015. Today, Azerbaijan has about 300 tourist companies and more than 570 placements,” the minister said.

To attract a large number of international visitors Azerbaijan use the tested practice such as holding popular sporting events. Given the fact that in a couple of days the country will host the European Grand Prix Formula 1 in Baku, foreign tourist flow will increase significantly.

The race route runs through the central part of the capital, so that the viewers will have a unique opportunity to enjoy not only the competition, but also a wonderful appearance of the beautiful capital.

Major sport events usually receive substantial attention in the media. Therefore, local stakeholders often share hopes that the event will promote the destinations in which these events are hosted by stimulating inbound tourism in the longer term after the event. Experts claim that the broadcast of the event will see millions of fans around the world.

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

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