Land of Fire to welcome more tourists

/By Azernews/

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan continues to simplify the process of issuing electronic visas to foreign visitors with a view to attract more tourists to the country and address inadequacies in the area of tourism management.

Chairman of the Azerbaijan Tourism Association Muzaffar Agakerimov believes the recent facilitation of e- visas issuing terms for foreigners will give a positive results for the tourism development.

“Reducing the deadline for issuance of e-visas in Azerbaijan from 10 to 5 days may contribute to the inflow of tourists from Europe,” he said, adding that business tours, congresses, international events held in the country are mainly attended by European participants.

However, Agakerimov said, it does not mean that Azerbaijan attracts foreigners only from the European continent.

“This simplification may also be great opportunity for those coming from the Persian Gulf, China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore to see the Land of Fire,” he said.

The e-visa system is designed to provide a simplified and rapid issuing an entry permission for foreigners wishing to visit the country, as well as to reduce travel packages at prices of individual and group tourist visits, and to increase the flow of tourists to the country.

The simplification of visa issuance system is a requirement of the day, the expert underlined, adding that local travel companies should establish closer ties with travel agencies of the countries, whose citizens wish to visit Azerbaijan and prepare special tour packages with different prices, offering additional activities for tourists.

“The state has created all the necessary conditions for the tourism development -- no licenses are required for businesses in the tourism sector, the period for issuing visas was reduced and infrastructure was improved. But the travel agencies are lazy. They were engaged in outbound tourism, which was easy to organize. Now they need to “break head”, to build good management,” the advisor said.

Culture and Tourism Minister Abulfaz Garayev has recently said increase of tourist flow is expected mainly from neighboring countries, noting that Russian, Iranian and Georgian travel agencies are interested in tourism opportunities of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan, also known as the Land of Fire, is located at the junction of Europe and Asia, what makes the country even more interesting for tourism development.

The historical, cultural and natural heritage of the Azerbaijan attracted some 2.5 million of visitors from all over the world to the country last year.

Indeed, 2016 is rich with several influential sporting events. Baku will see 2016 UEFA European Under-17 Championship finals from May 5 to 21.

June 17-19 will also focus the attention of sports fans to Baku, where 2016 FORMULA 1 Grand Prix of Europe will be held.

This year Baku is also preparing to welcome world grandmasters for the World Chess Olympiad. Azerbaijan is also preparing to hold the ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships in the Olympic class "470" from April 7 through 9.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan has risen in the Henley & Partners Visa Restrictions Index, a global ranking of countries according to the travel freedom that their citizens enjoy. In the overall ranking among 200 countries Azerbaijan rose from 78th to 75th place.

Azerbaijani citizens can visit 62 of the 218 countries of the world without a visa, compared to 2015, when Azerbaijanis could visit only 58 countries.