Tourists in Azerbaijan get involved in interesting types of entertainment
By Sara Israfilbayova
Interactive tourism in Azerbaijan is of interest to both local and foreign tourists.
Director of the State Historical and Ethnographic Reserve "Gala" Malahat Farajeva told Trend that interactive tours on carpet weaving, pottery, blacksmithing, etc. are organized, and they are ordered in advance.
"For example, master pot makers teach those who want to engage in pottery, carpet-makers show how to weave a carpet, others learn how to roll out pita bread, etc," she said.
Farajeva reminded that there are four museums in the reserve: one free-of-charge museum entitled as "From waste to art" and three paid ones – Ethnographic Museum, Museum of Antiques and the "Gala" Fortress. She added that museums can be visited without interactive tours.
Museum tickets are available, and they cost 2 manats ($1.18) for local tourists, 4 manats ($2.35) for foreigners, she said.
The director of the reserve noted that the cost of interactive tours is higher. In a group of at least ten people, a ticket for Azerbaijani citizens costs 10 manats ($5.88), for foreign citizens - 15 manats ($8.82). The price includes a visit to the Ethnographic Museum and the "Gala" Fortress, guide services, as well as excursions to four workshops.
Farajeva went on to say that tourists visiting the Gala reserve are most interested in pottery and the intricacies of baking a lavash (pita bread). At the same time, Chinese tourists are more interested in carpet weaving.
She also said that the number of visitors is growing, and tourists themselves offer to create new services in the framework of interactive tourism, and now work is underway in this direction.
The tours are conducted in Azerbaijani, Russian, English, German and French.
In 2017, about 2.690 million tourists visited Azerbaijan, which is 20 percent more than the indicator of 2016.
Mostly Azerbaijan was visited by tourists from Russia - 853,082 people (31.6 percent of the total amount of tourists). The second and third lines of attendance are occupied by citizens of Georgia – 537,000 (19.9 percent) and Iran – 362,000 people (13.4 percent).
Turkey is on the fourth line with 301,000 tourists (11.2 percent), the first five is closed by tourists from the UAE – 102,000 people (3.8 percent).
In 2017 there was an increase in the tourist flow from Saudi Arabia (4.5 times), Oman (7.4 times), the United Arab Emirates (1.9 times), Iran (1.4 times), India (2,3 times).
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Sara Israfilbayova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Sara_999Is
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