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Tourist arrivals reach 3 million in Azerbaijan

24 December 2019 18:20 (UTC+04:00)
Tourist arrivals reach 3 million in Azerbaijan

By Ofeliya Afandiyeva

The number of tourists visiting Azerbaijan from 192 countries increased by 11 percent year-on-year in the period of January-November, reaching 2.9 million, local media reported.

Overall, 29.7 percent of the visitors came from Russia, 20.2 percent - Georgia, 8.3 percent - Turkey, 3.7 percent - Iran, 3.5 percent - Saudi Arabia, 2 percent - the UAE and India each, 1.9 percent - Ukraine, 1.7 percent - Turkmenistan, 1.6 percent - Iraq, 1.5 percent - Kazakhstan and Israel each, 1.4 percent - Pakistan, 1.2 percent - the UK, 11.4 percent - other countries, while 0.1 percent of the tourists were stateless persons.

One-third of the visitors were Russian citizens. Thus, compared to January-November 2018, the number of Russian tourists increased by 49,000 people or 6 percent.

The highest growth was observed among tourists from Central and South Asia rising by 46.7 and 38 percent respectively. Overall, 120,000 (Central Asia) and 107,000 (South Asia) foreign citizens from these countries traveled to Azerbaijan during the mentioned period.

The biggest increase in visitors was observed among citizens of Turkmenistan (91.9 percent), India (67.7 percent), China (63.1 percent), Egypt (58.5 percent), Malaysia (51.2 percent), Saudi Arabia (46.1 percent), Hungary (32.8 percent), Poland (31.7 percent), Uzbekistan (27.3 percent), Spain (26.6 percent), the Philippines and the UK (26.5 percent each), Kazakhstan (24.5 percent), South Korea (20.2 percent), Georgia (20.1 percent) and Germany (19.8 percent).

As in previous months, the most considerable number of arrivals in Central Asia came from Turkmenistan (49,000) and Kazakhstan (43,000).

Among South Asian countries India (59,000) and Pakistan (42,000) were distinguished countries for the number of tourists.

The number of foreign visitors from Turkey and Iran reached 289,000 and 235,000 accordingly.

Along with this, there was a 4 percent decline in the number of tourists from the Middle East. Except for Israel (14.5 percent growth) and Saudi Arabia (46.5 percent growth), there has been a drop in the number of arrivals from other Middle Eastern countries.

During January-November, 93,000 or 9 percent more foreign visitors visited Azerbaijan from countries (China, India, Russia, Germany, Saudi Arabia, UAE) where Azerbaijani tourism representative offices are operating.

The highest growth was recorded for India, China and Saudi Arabia. The number of arrivals from the UAE also declined by 29.8 percent.

Moreover, in November, the number of foreign citizens traveling to Azerbaijan increased by 13.3 percent compared to the same month of 2018 (195,000) and reached 241,000. This year's growth is twice higher than the November 2018 growth (6 percent).

Tourists from Russia (69,000) and Georgia (68,000) topped the list of visitors to Azerbaijan in 2019.

The highest growth rates are observed for Iran, as well as for the countries of South and Central Asia with 33.5 percent, 40.1 percent and 35.5 percent accordingly.

Among the South Asian countries, India has shown a noticeable increase of 76.3 percent for the number of visitors to Azerbaijan.

Over the above mentioned period, the number of people who came from EU member states increased by 22 percent, amounting to 130,000 people, and the number of people who came from the CIS countries grew by 9.1 percent, amounting to slightly over one million people.

Some 66.3 percent of visitors were men and 33.7 percent women.

Some 58.4 percent of foreigners and stateless persons who visited Azerbaijan used rail and road transport, 40.8 percent – air transport and 0.8 percent – maritime transport.

Along with this, according to the local media, in January-November 2019, the number of Azerbaijani citizens visiting foreign countries increased by 14.1 percent compared to the same period last year, reaching 5 million people.

Some 36.7 percent of Azerbaijani citizens visited Iran, 28.7 percent - Georgia, 17.6 percent - Russia, 11.5 percent – Turkey and 5.5 percent visited other countries.

Among the visitors, 64 percent were men and 36 percent - women.

During this period, the number of Azerbaijani citizens traveling to Iran increased by 25.5 percent, to Georgia - by 12.7 percent, to Russia - by 6.2 percent and to Turkey - by 4.5 percent.

Some 82.5 percent of Azerbaijani citizens who visited foreign countries in January-November this year used rail and road transport, 16.8 percent – air transport and 0.7 percent – maritime transport.

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