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By Gulgiz Dadashova

Mr. Florian Sengstschmid, Executive Director at Azerbaijan Convention Bureau, tells AzerNews about the tourism sector in Azerbaijan, touching upon ways to develop the sector, existing challenges and goals to be achieved.

Question: We’ve been hearing about business tourism more and more over the recent years. How do you define that?

Answer: As it is a case for many terms in Meetings Industry there is no commonly used definition for business tourism. But in today’s understanding business tourism is the provision of facilities and services to the millions of professionals who annually attend meetings, congresses, exhibitions, business events, as well as incentive travel and corporate hospitality.

There is a special organization International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), the goal of which is to evaluate practical ways to get the travel industry involved in the rapidly expanding market of international meetings and to exchange up to date information related to their operations in business tourism market. This is one of the most prominent organizations in the world of meetings and as Azerbaijan Convention Bureau we are proud to be a member of ICCA.

Q.: Were there any surprises for you coming out of the tourism indicators of Azerbaijan? What makes Azerbaijan’s destinations particularly reliable for business tourism, as compared to other types of tourism destinations?

A.: Knowing what a great tourism potential Azerbaijan has, it was not a surprise to see many positive indicators in comparison to the previous years. Rich culture, infrastructure, past experience of big events, perfect environment, its role of a cosmopolitan hub for Eurasia and a leading country in the Region, as well as a unique contrast of ancient and modern, greatly contribute to making Azerbaijan an attractive business tourism destination. As a result, neighbor country Georgia has recently requested to study the structure, strategy and experience of Azerbaijan Convention Bureau as a good-practice. This September a high-ranking official delegation from Georgia was invited to Baku and discussed possibilities of collaboration in tourism and meeting industry.

Q.: What are some of the biggest challenges for ACB today? How you see the business tourism sector of the future?

A.: The big challenge for the Meetings Destination Azerbaijan is to prominent real place in very well established environment. That’s why it is very important to create a strong network between local Meetings Industry players. Azerbaijan Convention Bureau started its operation with just 8 members, but one year passed and currently we are an AzCB family with 28 members. In our case, a big support by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and existence of strong Azerbaijan Meeting Alliance is very helpful to strength the Meetings Industry brand.

We are trying to organize trainings and different events on a regular basis, where AzCB and our partners can discuss cons and pros of current market situation and find solutions to overcome existing problems. So, we need and we do encourage partners to stand closely to support the development.

Q.: How can local operators act to improve the position of the countries’ tourism destinations? What advice do you have for tourism companies on areas to focus on in regards to development?

A.: Tourism and business tourism consist of many aspects, which need a single involvement to make the whole products and services successful. Meetings Industry development is rapid and challenging, which is related with know-how technologies. In this regard, as a Convention Bureau, we give market insights to our partners by inviting international experts as well to share their experiences on this way.

My personal advice to tourism companies is to specialize on a certain thematic niche or experiences. Consequently, they need to train their staff, innovate products and technologies, initiate cooperation beyond tourism and adapt to global multi-channel distribution channels to reach out to potential clients. By the way: the field of meetings industry offers a vast potential for new business ideas. Especially since the industry is rather young and with a growing number of international meetings more and more foreign companies will be also looking for investment opportunities in this area. So, now is the best time for Azerbaijani companies to take the effort and develop and innovate!

Q.: Please share case studies and examples that you find particularly interesting and are reflective of the changes occurring in the country’s business tourism today.

A.: Azerbaijan itself is a great study for other countries, what once again proves why Georgia asked namely Azerbaijan to support them in this field. The transition from an Oil & Gas-oriented country to tourism service orientation is a huge step, proving bright future of tourism in Azerbaijan.

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