Azerbaijan records sharp decline in inflow of foreign tourists

20 December 2020 11:52 (UTC+04:00)

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Like other countries, Azerbaijan is also observing a crisis in the tourism sector caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Trend reports citing the State Border Service of Azerbaijan.

From January through November 2020, 756,800 foreigners and stateless persons from 155 countries visited Azerbaijan, which is 3.9 times less compared to the same period of 2019, said the service’s report.

According to the report, 28.2 percent of those who came to the country during the specified period are citizens of Russia, 23.7 percent – of Georgia, 19.5 percent - Turkey, 8.9 percent - Iran, 2.1 percent - Ukraine, 1.7 percent - India, 1.6 percent - Saudi Arabia, 1.1 percent - the UAE and Kazakhstan each, 1 percent - Pakistan and Turkmenistan each, 0.9 percent - Kuwait and the UK each, 0.8 percent - Belarus, 0.7 percent - Uzbekistan and Iraq each, 0.5 percent - Germany and Israel each, 5 percent - citizens of other countries and 0.1percent - stateless persons.

Among those who arrived, 80.3 percent were men, 19.7 percent - women, added the report.

During this period, the number of people who came to Azerbaijan from China decreased 16.4 times, from South Korea - 13.6 times, Israel - 10.7 times, Japan - 10 times, Poland - 9.9 times, Iraq - 9. 2 times, Saudi Arabia - 8.6 times, Hungary - 8.4 times, the UAE - 7.2 times, Oman and Canada - 7.1 times each, the US - 7 times, Turkmenistan - 6.1 times, France - 6 times, Germany and Qatar - 5.7 times, the Netherlands and Kazakhstan - 5.3 times each, the UK - 5.2 times, and Italy - 4.3 times.

Totally, the number of arrivals from EU countries decreased 5.9 times year on year, amounting to 22,100 people, from the Gulf countries, the number of arrivals decreased 4.8 times, amounting to 105,300 people, and from the CIS countries decreased by 4.1 times, amounting to 259,300 people.

As reported, 69.7 percent of foreigners and stateless persons who arrived in Azerbaijan used rail and road transport, 27.9 percent - air and 2.4 percent – maritime transport.