UNWTO to continue coop with Azerbaijan to boost tourism
By Nigar Orujova
The tourism sector is a priority direction for Azerbaijan and the World Tourism Organization will continue cooperation with the country for further development of this field, UNWTO Executive Director Zoltan Somogyi said during a business meeting of the Silk Road Program group of UNWTO in Baku on Monday.
According to Somogyi, over 2 million tourists visited Azerbaijan last year, which once again confirms the importance of the tourism sector for the country.
He said Azerbaijan with the UNWTO support is implementing many projects and noted that such a very important event as the first European Olympic Games will be held in its capital, Baku, in 2015.
According to Culture and Tourism Minister Abulfaz Garayev, the meeting is being held to support tourism in the countries along the Silk Road and develop cooperation in the frame of the UNWTO's Silk Road Program.
Garayev also spoke about the economic and cultural ties, which were created and connected the Silk Road countries in different periods of their history, and underlined that furthering the tradition is very valuable from the cultural point of view as well as in terms of developing cooperation and friendship.
Azerbaijan is a member of the Silk Road program, which includes 28 countries, whose purpose is to ensure the development of tourism throughout the Silk Road route by making joint efforts.
Tourist inflow
Minister Garayev said over a 10 percent increase of the tourist inflow is expected in Azerbaijan this year.
"Each year the number of tourists coming to our country increases by 10-15 percent," he said.
Azerbaijan has been trying for years to turn into a favored destination for tourists, but due to some problems with visa issuance, visiting Azerbaijan is not a simple task.
According to Garayev, e-visa issuance will increase the number of tourists visiting Azerbaijan.
"It is necessary to complete the study of some technical issues to introduce electronic visas. I think we will be all ready until the summer season; Azerbaijani travel agencies are very interested to join this project. I believe this will positively influence the increase of the tourists' number," he said.
Up to 30 travel agencies have been given the opportunity to carry out the procedure of issuing visas online in Azerbaijan.
In addition, the minister noted, Azerbaijani tourists now prefer to have a vacation in the country, which is due to the improvement of infrastructure in the regions.
"Today, besides Baku, Gabala region and Shagdag summer and winter tourism complex attract tourists," Garayev said.
He also expressed hope that more people would visit the Shagdag complex next year. During the two-month test mode operation, 50,000 people -- mostly local tourists -- visited this facility, which is a record number for Azerbaijani tourism facilities.
Built in the northern Gusar region, the complex will be able to function all year round with artificial snow and is expected to receive 10,000 tourists daily after the completion of its construction. However, this summer the complex will not operate in order to finish the first phase of the construction work.
Star rating
514 hotels rendered services in the country in 2012, however, only 260 of them have obtained the required licenses. 5.3 percent of them are state-run, while 94.7 percent are private entities. The number of travel agencies in Azerbaijan has reached 200.
However, there is a lack of three-star hotels in the country.
Earlier, Vice President of Operations in Central and Eastern Europe of Wyndham Hotel Group, Edwin Broers, told Azernews that now there is an unbalanced hotel room inventory in Baku as 80-90 of the branded hotels here are five-star hotels.
Once demand comes to Baku, then there will be more need for mid-market hotels as well. If there is low demand and a high number of hotel rooms, the prices will go down, and if a five-star hotel is going down in prices, the mid-market will be badly affected, Broers believes.
The Culture and Tourism Ministry in 2012 developed new standards on the hotels' star rating, which will be implemented from this year.
Whereas 150 criteria were taken into account earlier while assessing the category of hotels, currently 300 criteria are applied to define the state standard, which will definitely improve the level of provided services.
According to Minister Garayev, assessing the category of hotels is planned to become obligatory, as the main aim of the country is to render high-quality services. This will be reflected in the new tourism law.
If such an assessment becomes compulsory, all the hotels of the country will have to be certified again, Garayev said.