Ministry calculates number of tourists visiting country during European Games

/By AzerNews/

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan is calculating the number of visitors who arrived in the country in connection with the first European Games.

The Culture and Tourism Ministry collected data of 45 major hotels, operating in the country. The ministry has already had information about 45,000 tourists.

However, in total 170,000 foreign tourists arrived in Azerbaijan in June, including athletes and guests of the European Games, said Abulfaz Garayev, the culture and tourism minister.

He noted that the Games became good propaganda of the country around the world. “Holding of such an event in Azerbaijan is aimed primarily not for today, but for the future of the country,” the minister stressed.

The 17-day excited sporting event kicked off in Baku on June 12. It hosted more than 6,000 athletes from 50 European countries to compete in 20 sports. Some 16 of sports were Olympic, while four including karate, basketball 3x3, beach soccer and sambo were new sports to this format.

Moreover, 12 of these sports were licensed for the Rio 2016 Olympics.

The significant sporting event was watched by over one billion people throughout the world and its impressive opening ceremony, held at the new built National Olympic Stadium was broadcasted in 93 countries.

The majority of the foreigners who obtained tickets to watch the European Games at the stadium were citizens of Russia, UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, the U.S., and the United Arab Emirates.

The flow of tourists to the country is increasing every year. Overall, tourism in the Land of Fire has doubled since 2006 and reached up to 2.3 million in 2014.

Thus, the tourists’ expenditures in the country increased from 91 million manats in 2006 to 1.2 milliard manats in 2014.

Azerbaijan has improved its tourist potential, so now it is able to host 35,000 tourists in its 530 hotels, with 23 five star, 41 four star, 12 three star and 3 two star hotels.