Ilham Shaban: "I have doubts about a million of tourists visiting Azerbaijan each year"

- How will the prohibition to swim at the beaches of Sghuvelyan, Mardakan, Shikhov, Sakhil (Qaradagh) of the capital and a beach section from Jorat to Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev (territory of Sumgayit) influence the number of tourists, willing to visit to Azerbaijan?

- Naturally, the influence will be extremely negative, but, frankly speaking, there is a low number of tourists, visiting Baku to swim in the Caspian Sea. as information about high level of its pollution is too widely spread. And this is clear, as the Caspian Sea is today polluted by all the littoral states, including the Iranian sector. This is well known in the world and I think such situation will not change in the next 50 years.

But in this connection it should be noted that the problem of pollution of water reservoirs and other places of beach resort does not relate only to Azerbaijan. Similar problem faces some other countries, especially Russia. But this country has already initiated the settlement of the existing problem in April, when cleaning works started in Sochi and a number of other resorts, attractive for tourists. Unfortunately, Azerbaijan does not carry out such works, while the temperatures are lower there than in Azerbaijan, which means that the beach season started later than in our country. These are the realities: in Azerbaijan everything is done for observation of formalities, and in the result we do not use the reserves, nature granted to us.

- How will information about Baku's being among the most polluted cities in the world, in line with Mercer-Human Resource report, influence the number of tourists, potentially willing to arrive in Azerbaijan?

- You can get sure that our capital is a polluted city not from a report of any international organization, but just by taking a walk along the streets of Baku.

At the same time, attractiveness of a city for tourists can be defined by a number of parameters.

For example, availability of fresh water and its quality. We all know how it is in Baku, where citizens are supplied with water for only a few hours per day, while its quality leaves much to be desired.

Moreover, as we have witnessed, sometimes water supply to the houses of Baku residents even depends on the relations between two monopolists: Azersu and Sumgayitelektrikshebeke.

The availability of public bathes for the population should also be taken into account as an aspect, influencing the attractiveness of a country for tourists. Unfortunately, we have problems in this sphere, as well.

The main component of the tourism infrastructure is a speed of receipt and sending of correspondence in any city and in this sphere Baku is far from ideal. Perhaps, all these aspects were taken into account by those, who decided by reject Baku's appeal for hosting the Olympic games. Naturally, all these problems, do not stimulate interest to our capital or make people from other countries leave their businesses just for visiting our capital.

- In this case, how real is an official thesis that Azerbaijan attracts over a million of tourists per year?

- I consider this figure doubtful, as I can hardly imagine what in Azerbaijan is attractive for potential tourists, considering the aforementioned problems and absence of any brand, historical or any other complex, capable of getting tourists reconciled with some discomforts just for the sake of seeing them/

Nobody wants to work in our country! For example, such an interesting route as Qobustan has not been developed: there are no normal guides, no components, capable, of raising interest of the tourists to this unique route.

But this is not the end. The prices on resort in the sphere of not so developed tourism in Azerbaijan exceed those of other more famous and tourism attractive areas of the world.

I would list an example: a day of staying in one of the tourist complex in Nabran costs AZN 250-350, with food exclusive. Who will agree to visit there, if a week of staying in Turkish Antalia, including the cost of residence and food, costs AZN 699?!

Another example: in Bulgaria tourists can order enough food for EUR 20. But can we do the same in the Baku restaurants? I'm not sure.

I also doubt that you can call a single tourism agency outside Azerbaijan, which would propose tours to our country, while tours to neighbor Turkey or Greece are proposed in a great many of countries!

Resuming the aforementioned, I doubt that a million of tourists per year visit our country and that it has become as much attractive for them as Turkey is.

/Day.Az/