Tourism sector in the country is gradually recovering. Closed land borders and expensive air tickets, of course, become an obstacle for many. However, in January-July of this year, 1 million 143.6 thousand foreigners and stateless persons arrived in Azerbaijan, which is 37.4% more than in the same period in 2022.
As Samir Dubendi, Chairman of the Board of the Chairman of Azerbaijan Ecotourism Association, said in a conversation with Zerkalo, in January-June 2023, totally 830,110 persons were accommodated in hotels and hotel-type enterprises, which of them 470,437 foreigners and stateless persons and 359,673 were our citizens. During this period, the total number of overnight stays in the country was 1,363,239, of which 788,089 were foreigners, and 575,150 were locals. During the same period of last year, totally 675,197 persons were accommodated. Here the growth was about 23%. In the number of overnight stays we saw increasing up 33.7%. Last year, the number of overnight stays in the first half of the year was 1,027,033.
At the same time, the expert emphasized that some changes are taking place in inbound tourism in Azerbaijan:
“So, in the first half of 2023, the number of tourists from Arab countries decreased by 8.6% and amounted to 185,400 people. The number of tourists from the CIS countries increased by 1.7 times and amounted to 477,100 people, and the number of arrivals from the countries of the European Union also increased, which amounted to an increase of 36.5% and reached 57,200 people. I am not sure that in these statistics we see only the number of tourists. This is the total number of arrivals from European countries, which have recently included an increasing number of business travelers. But this is another step towards diversification, opportunities to attract tourists from developed countries, whose citizens, along with higher demands, also spend more money during their trips.”
It should be noted that in previous years, Europeans rarely chose Azerbaijan as a holiday destination. Moreover, it is one thing to come to visit family and friends, and another thing to go on vacation. Therefore, how to interest and retain such tourists, for whom there are many destinations around the world available?