Travelers to benefit single tourist electronic card in Baku
By Amina Nazarli
Foreign guests of Baku will be able to use single tourist cards for many entertainments and travel.
Tourists will use the cards for entry to museums, other cultural sites, public transport, and also in excursion buses "Baku City Bus", said Kanan Guluzade, the spokesperson for the National Bureau for Propaganda of Tourism.
The use of such cards will be convenient for tourists, and at the same time will bring some profit to the National Bureau, he said, adding that such tourist cards are used in many developed countries.
The National Bureau plans to prepare two types of cards - for 30 days and annual, and the latter can be extended.
“By purchasing the card, foreign and local citizens will be able to use certain services free of charge or on preferential terms. The cards are designed for visiting museums, use in sightseeing buses and vehicles in Baku. They also provide an opportunity to use discounts in some stores. All this is at the stage of consideration, and the number of services that are more interesting for tourists will be expanded,” he said.
Guluzade added that the single tourist electronic cards will be available for purchase at travel agencies, a number of points of sale in Baku, as well as online.
He said that the project on preparation of the single tourist cards is being discussed with the relevant government and business structures.
“We hope that soon it will be presented to the public,” Guluzade said. “We will try to make the card’s price affordable for everyone.”
A total of 1,513,000 overseas visitors visited Azerbaijan, also known as the Land of Fire, in the seven months of 2017. The figure shows a 24-percent rise compared to 2016.
For the past 10 years, the number of tourists visiting Azerbaijan increased by five times. In 2016, the number of tourists visiting the Land of Fire amounted to 2,242 million people and this is 11.7 percent more than in 2015.
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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli
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