Low-cost hotels to attract more tourists

/By AzerNews/

By Nigar Orujova

Accommodation for tourists is one of the main priorities while hosting any international event such as the first European Games - to be held in Baku this June.

More and more new hotels have opened their doors in Azerbaijan’s capital and regions ahead of the historic event. Today, the country can accommodate over 35,000 tourists in its 530 hotels.

Baku is a home for a large number of five star hotels, but what about budget-oriented tourism. Will tourists with a limited budget be catered for as well?

A number of hotels for tourists with an average income are growing in Azerbaijan, chairman of the Sustainable Development Research Center, Nariman Agayev told local press.

“While 3-4 years ago we could offer foreign tourists nothing but expensive luxury hotels, today the situation has changed," he noted.

Over 70 percent of tourists around the world have a middle level income, which must be considered while developing the industry.

Neighboring Georgia has such hotels for a long time, but in Azerbaijan this process is significantly behind. "But today we can observe that small hotels: 10-15 rooms, with an average price of $35-60 per day, have began to open up in Baku. I think that if that such trend continues to grow we can expect the number of tourists to increase."

Moreover, Baku has already several hostels - budget hotels, designed for very low cost travel, he added. Here, of course, tourists have to share a room with a few more people, but prices of course are really low - an average of $15-20 per day.

In addition, visitors of Baku 2015 will benefit from a relax visa regime. All conditions have been created to make people's visit as easy as possible.

Azerbaijan is expecting a tourists flow in June 12-28, as people from all over the world will want to attend the historic event. 6,000 athletes from 50 countries will compete for medals.

"According to our calculations, about 20,000-30,000 tourists from abroad will arrive at the Games,” Agayev said.

Each tourist is expected to spend an average of 1,000 euros in Baku, which will generate an estimated 300 million euro income for Azerbaijan, he stressed.

Meanwhile, the Culture and Tourism Ministry reports that there is no rise in prices in local hotels due to the devaluation of the manat.

The Land of Fire is turning into a tourist attraction, with its ancient history and antique architecture, beautiful nature and delicious cuisine.

Over 2 million tourists came to Azerbaijan last year, which amounted to about one billion manats (over $950,000 million) revenue from tourism. In the near future, the country is expected to increase its tourist flow up to 5 million a year.

All hotels that are ready to receive tourists in the central part of Baku were licensed, Tourism Minister Abulfaz Garayev said. Ninety-five percent of all the hotels in Baku have their license. Work is underway to license the rest of the hotels.

Aside from the Games, guests of Baku 2015 will enjoy Azerbaijan's rich cultural program.

Special events have been held in all theaters, museums, and concert halls of Baku and during the European Games their working time will be extended, he said.

"In addition, several world-known musicians will come to Azerbaijan to perform here," said Garayev.

All the preparations for the European Games will also have a profound effect on the country’s life during other international events in the country, such as the Islamic Solidarity Games, Formula 1 race and quarterfinals and three group games of the Euro 2020.