Tourist flow to Azerbaijan can reach 4 million people by 2023
By Leman Mammadova
Successful holding of events of international significance in Azerbaijan has a positive impact on the number of tourists arriving in the country.
By 2023, it is planned to increase the incoming tourist flow to Azerbaijan to four million people thanks to the "Grand Prix of Azerbaijan" races of the Formula 1 series, Bahruz Asgarov, the deputy CEO of the Azerbaijan Tourism Board (BTA), said at a round table on “Economic and social benefits of holding Formula 1 races", Trend reports March 4.
This indicator is provided for under the "Tourism Strategy 2023", Asgarov said.
He noted that today the development of tourism is one of the priorities of the state policy of Azerbaijan, and the State Tourism Agency and the Tourism Board were established in accordance with this policy in 2018.
"Our organization closely cooperates with the organizers of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and we set ourselves the task to increase the time Formula-1 fans spend in Azerbaijan. The fact is that the Formula-1 fans spend in Azerbaijan about 3-4 days during the races in Baku. In turn, we are working on new tourist products and brands that would be interesting for tourists, for example, so that they visit the country's regions as well, and stay in the country for a longer period of time," Asgarov said.
The fourth Formula 1 Grand Prix, to be held in Baku on 26-28 April 2019, attracts greater interest rather than previous ones.
The Formula-1 races are currently the second most attractive tourist event in the world after the Olympic Games.
Azerbaijan first became a host to Formula 1 race back in 2016.
The Baku route was designed by Hermann Tilke. The length of the circle was slightly more than 6 km, the movement on it was counterclockwise.The length of the Baku track, where teams competed for the championship, each represented by two drivers, was just over six kilometers. The length of the widest part of the track was 13 meters, and the narrowest width was 7.6 meters between the turns 7 and 8, which are situated along the Icheri Sheher (Old City).
The 2016 winner was Nico Rosberg. In the second year of the royal race, the winner was French pilot of the Petramina Arden team, Norman Nato.
The winner of the third Grand Prix held on April 27-29 in 2018 was Lewis Hamilton of the Mercedes team.
Azerbaijan has recently extended the contract to hold Formula 1 races for another three years.
Year by year interest in racing is growing and more and more tourists are dreaming to feel the power of sports cars in extremely narrow and challenging sections of the Baku track, revealing all the beauty of the Old City wall.
Most of all, tourists from Russia, Great Britain, Ukraine come to Baku for Formula 1. People also come from the Netherlands, Germany, U.S., countries of the Middle East, especially from the United Arab Emirates.
One of the features of the races in Azerbaijan was the organization of a show program with the world stars. In previous years, Formula 1 spectators remember the performances of such million-selling global artists as Chris Brown, Enrique Iglesias, Farrell Williams, Merai Carey, Nicole Scherzinger,Tarkan, Jamiroquai, Christina Aguilera, Dua Lipa, DJ’s Afrojack and Martin Solveig.
According to the study of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the Azerbaijani Formula 1 Grand Prix races brought Azerbaijan $ 277.3 million in revenue.
The successful holding of such great events has turned Azerbaijan into a country recognizable by everyone in the world, and a country that many foreigners wish to visit as soon as possible.
It is noteworthy that in 2018, as many as 2,849,600 tourists from 196 countries arrived in Azerbaijan, showing a 5.7 percent increase compared to 2017.
---
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz