Tourism prices go 20 pct down in Azerbaijan

Source: AzerNews

Azerbaijani Culture and Tourism Ministry continues its monitoring before the summer tourism season in 38 cities and the regions of the country, the Ministry told the local press.

Azerbaijan Tourism Association (AzTA) and the Ministry started the monitoring in May. The monitoring is aimed at inspecting the quality of the travel agencies' services. The monitoring covers all the regions of Azerbaijan.

According to the ministry, the monitoring has already been completed in eight regions, while the scrutiny in six other regions is still underway; all the regions are to be monitored by June 30.

The ministry said results of the monitoring conducted so far showed the unreadiness of the tourism zones for the summer season, and the tourism facilities' heads were given an opportunity to eliminate the revealed shortfalls by June 15, otherwise, adequate measures will be taken.

However, the monitoring showed a 10-20 percent fall in prices.

The summer tourism season starts in mid-June in Azerbaijan, while the tourist trips outside the country started from the middle of May.

According to the head of Tourism Association of Azerbaijan Nahid Bagirov, some 90-95 percent of the tourists come to Azerbaijan through travel agencies.

Previously tourists faced problems while obtaining visas, and they had to apply to the embassies of Azerbaijan in their home countries. This problem was making the country less attractive for the tourists. Azerbaijan has now started issuing online visas to resolve the problem.

Currently tourists are able to obtain a visa online by sending a copy of their passport to travel companies without visiting the embassy.

The number of hotels in Azerbaijan has been on the rise recently. However, only 260 of the 514 operating hotels have obtained licenses.

221 licensed travel agencies operate in the country.

Some 2.5 million foreign tourists visited Azerbaijan in 2012, and Azerbaijan expects an increase of 70 to 80 percent in the tourist flow in the next five to six years.