Azernews.Az

Azerbaijan's tourism potential is being promoted at the international exhibition "Top Resa-2015" underway in France on September 29-October 2.

The delegation of the Culture and Tourism Ministry led by deputy minister Nazim Samadov takes part at the exhibition.

The Azerbaijani tourism companies "Geo Travel", "Gilan Tourism" and "SW travel" participate at the event to showcase the opportunities of Azerbaijani tourism companies and hotels.

A special stand, which reflects tourism potential of Azerbaijan, was installed at the exhibition. Relevant printed advertising materials are distributed to visitors and exhibitors.

This year, 160 countries have 365 stands at this international exhibition.

Today, the country’s goal is to welcome 5 million tourists a year.

To reach this goal, the country plans to cut airfare, hotel prices, and facilitate its visa process, while constructing additional budget hotels.

To come to the ancient Land of Fire, most tourists from the different parts of the world need a visa and the Foreign Ministry will soon present proposals to facilitate the issuance of those visas.

The country also approved procedures for obtaining visas for tourists upon arrival in Azerbaijan. The Tourism Ministry has issued the right to design electronic tourist visas to 65 travel agencies that are now going through accreditation.

Today, the country can accommodate over 35,000 tourists in over 530 hotels, but Azerbaijan still needs more low cost hotels to meet the demands of its budget tourists.

Over 2 million tourists came to Azerbaijan last year, which amounted to about one billion manats (over $950,000 million) in revenue from tourism. In the near future, the country is expected to increase its tourist flow up to 5 million a year.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz