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Azerbaijan eager to attract tourists from some Asian countries

5 October 2018 14:33 (UTC+04:00)
Azerbaijan eager to attract tourists from some Asian countries

By Sara Israfilbayova

Tourism in Azerbaijan is developing rapidly, and to support the flow of foreign visitors, comprehensive activities are carried out. Thanks to the activities, the number of tourists in Azerbaijan keeps increasing.

The country has become a popular tourist destination for visitors from all over the world in recent years.

With iconic landmarks such as the Flame Tower, as well as Maiden Tower and Shirvanshah Palace, included in the UNESCO’s world heritage list, it is obvious why tourists flock to this beautiful land.

Currently, Azerbaijan eyes to attract tourists from Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as to increase the number of tourists arriving from Pakistan.

Chairman of Azerbaijan Tourism Association (AzTa) Nahid Bagirov told Trend that work is underway to attract tourists from these countries.

“In late October, a memorandum will be signed with a large Malaysian Tourism Association to establish mutual cooperation. And then the tourism potential of Azerbaijan will be promoted at a major tourism exhibition in Singapore,” he said.

The chairman of the Association added that at present there are no direct air links between Azerbaijan and these countries.

“I hope that in 2019 there will be direct flights to Asian countries, as well as to India and Pakistan. Because there is already interest, and it would be useful to take this into account,” said Bagirov.

Ensuring sustainable economic development by raising non-oil sector is an important task facing the country at the present stage. Numerous studies show that tourism is one of the leading positions among the spheres of non-oil sector in terms of its prospects and the country does its best to create profitable conditions for development of this sphere and attract more tourists to the country.

As many as 1.325 million foreigners and stateless persons from 189 countries visited Azerbaijan in January to June 2018, which is 10.2 percent higher than the same period of 2017.

Some 30.5 percent of the tourists were from Russia, 21.1 percent from Georgia, 11.1 percent from Iran, 10.8 percent from Turkey, 3.6 percent from the UAE, 2.1 percent from Iraq, 2 percent from Ukraine, and 18.7 percent from other countries.

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Sara Israfilbayova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Sara_999Is

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

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