Tourist flow from Asia, Middle East increases
By Narmina Mammadova
Azerbaijan's potential for the tourism development is beyond any doubt. Nature, climate, historical monuments, cuisine, rich culture of the people arise great interest among foreign guests of the country.
Current trends in the development of tourism indicate an increase in its influence both on the world economy as a whole and on the country's economy.
Azerbaijan is among the developing countries in the field of tourism, occupying the 39th place among 148 countries in terms of global competitiveness in tourism.
As a result of measures taken by the state, the country has created a modern hotel and tourist infrastructure, trained personnel for the industry, formed an extensive network of travel agencies, created information and advertising structures, developed many tourist routes across the country, running through the most scenic and fertile areas.
In January-October 2018, the number of Asian and Middle Eastern tourists who visited Azerbaijan significantly increased, Azerbaijani State Tourism Agency told Trend.
During the reported period, 330,000 tourists arrived from the countries of the Middle East, which shows an increase of 42 percent compared to the same period of 2017. Most tourists from this region came from Saudi Arabia, Israel and Kuwait.
Russians are in the first place among those who arrived in Azerbaijan in January-October 2018 (752,000 tourists). The number of Russian tourists increased by 3.3 percent compared to the same period of 2017 and made up 31 percent of all foreign citizens who visited Azerbaijan.
Earlier, analytical agency TurStat has published a rating of the best CIS cities for shopping, according to Russian tourists earlier. Baku and Astana lead this ranking. Azerbaijan's ski resort Shahdag has also entered the three top destinations among Russians this winter season.
In January-October 2018, in total, the number of tourists arriving in Azerbaijan increased by 6.1 percent and reached 2.416 million people (previously 2.277 million).
All this shows that tourism industry is not static in Azerbaijan and the country is quickly learning and gaining experience in its development.
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Narmina Mammadova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Narmina86085711
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