Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan was able to make big strides in development of basic types of tourism such as beach, sightseeing, medical, extreme and business tourism.

The infrastructure of local resorts is being improved rapidly, while here one can find hotels and resorts for every taste. Domestic tourism has become a very profitable industry, where both government and private entrepreneurs are willing to invest money.

One of the new tourism areas developing in the country is rural tourism, which is also called "agricultural tourism" or "green" tourism. Today rural tourism is actively developing in the world and has good prospects in Azerbaijan as well.

The government of Azerbaijan is interested in development of this tourism, which is increasingly being used as a tool to improve the social and economic well being of rural areas.

The authorities plan to introduce tax breaks for the rural tourism development. This is provided in the package of proposals submitted to the government as a part of the preparation of a strategic roadmap for the national economy and its main sectors.

Ruslan Guliyev, the head of the Medical Support and the Thermal Tourism Association of Azerbaijan revealed that it’s proposed to apply income-tax exempt in regard to villagers, who produce a variety of gifts and products for tourists, as well as those who rent their homes to tourists.

“We offer to introduce tax incentives for a period from two to five years. This will give an impetus to the dynamic development of the regions and lead to outflow of labor force from the capital to the regions,” he stressed.

In addition it is proposed to provide long-term loans with low interest rates to small and medium businesses involved in tourism.

“Another proposal is connected with the provision of subsidies. They are widely used in the world. In neighboring Turkey, 70 percent of expenses of the companies, which represent and promote the country's tourism abroad, are returned to them in the form of state grants,” he emphasized.

Experts agree that rural tourism cash flows can assist job retention in services such as retailing, transport, hospitality and medical care. Rural tourism involves temporary stay of tourists in the countryside for recreation. Here, tourists can enjoy fascinating walks and hiking, bathing in ponds located near. If desired, visitors can also take part in chores, produced by the local population, feeling full immersion in rural life.

One of the most attractive places for the development of this new tourism trend is a beautiful region in the north-west of the country -- Gakh. This region is rich in its nature. In the Ilisu National Park located here tourists can meet bears, mountain-goats, wolves, wild cats, boars, jackals and others. The region is especially attractive for hunters and fishers. Waterfall Ram-Rama, which is considered to be the highest in Azerbaijan is located here.

Chairman of the Free Consumers Union Eyyub Huseynov believes that rural tourism requires the state support at the initial stage. “It can be viewed as a way of social development of rural areas and allow to stop the degradation of rural areas suffering from permanent population outflow, in particular, due to lack of work,” he said

The country already obtained a positive feedback from a relative project realized four years ago in the closest to the capital region -- Guba, according to Huseynov. The project carried out at the expense of the European Commission, was quite successful and thanks to the project income of local population increased by an average of 20 percent.

Rural tourism is not just farm-based tourism, and comprises special interest nature holidays sport and health tourism.

Speaking of health tourism, which is gaining momentum in the country in past years, Ruslan Guliyev noted that about 35 percent of tourists from Kazakhstan visit Azerbaijan for this purpose.

“Our task for the next three years is to increase the number of tourists visiting Azerbaijan for treatment by 25-30 percent. We have all the conditions for this. Health tourism is in demand all year round. Tourists who are visiting Azerbaijan for treatment, do not attach much importance to season, and visit the country both in summer and winter,” the head of the tourism association said.

Guliyev said that to increase the share of health tourism the state seeks to conduct a marketing activity and attract people of Kazakhstan, Persian Gulf countries, Europe and CIS states.

"We also plan to double the number of local and foreign info-tours by 2017," he said.

Today, Azerbaijan is able to accommodate 35,000 tourists per day, but this figure can reach 40,000.

Azerbaijan's revenues from tourism amounted to 2,678 billion manats (about $1,725 million) last year, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC). In 2010, thanks to foreign tourists Azerbaijan earned 654 million manats ($421million), and in 2011 the amount was 988 million manats ($636 million).

WTTC experts predict that Azerbaijan will generate 2,848 billion manats ($1.834 billion) this year, or 6.4 percent more compared to the previous year.

With regard to the numbers of tourists, the international organization expects this year 2,067 million visitors. WTTC expects that Azerbaijan will earn more than five billion manats ($3.2 billion) in foreign tourists in 2026, whose number will reach 3.37 million per year.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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