Baku Shopping Festival to attract more tourists to country

By Azernews

By Amina Nazarli

The Baku Shopping Festival will help to attract more tourists to Azerbaijan from neighboring countries, including Turkey, said Hicran Ozbuk.

The general manager of Istanbul Shopping Festival (ISF) and general manager of the Istanbul Convention and Visitors Bureau (ICVB) told Trend on April 12.

Ozbuk noted that the discounts and VAT refunds within the framework of the Baku Shopping Festival will positively affect sales, contributing to the increase of its prestige.

She went on to say that the Baku Shopping Festival has the potential for development and will expand every year, as well as the Istanbul Shopping Festival.

The Baku Shopping Festival started on April 10 and will last until May 10. The shopping festival is being held with organizational support of Azerbaijan Congress Bureau under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

The event simultaneously covers several areas – trade, tourism, entertainment, fashion and culture.

The purpose of holding trade festivals is to increase the economic and tourist potential of Azerbaijan, stimulate the country’s trade turnover by encouraging entrepreneurship.

The first-ever festival will offer discounts across a wide range of stores in addition to musical entertainment, raffle prize draws and fashion shows.

These festivals also provide for encouragement of the tax system, improvement of tax administration through the application of the VAT refund system for the goods not intended for production or commercial purposes and which were purchased by individuals during the trade festivals in Azerbaijan, the development of a system for servicing taxpayers.

VAT can be refunded in the 15 branches of five banks - Kapital Bank, PASHA Bank, Yapi Kredi Bank Azerbaijan, Bank Silk Way and Azerbaijan Industry Bank.

During the festival, the Tax Free system will be applied for the first time regarding the citizens of Azerbaijan.