What is the reason of high tariffs on tourism services in Azerbaijan?

Despite global financial crisis, prices on tourism services are not falling in Azerbaijan, while in other countries tariffs on different tourism services have reduced significantly in all countries of the world, including in neighbor states, said Fais Mamedov, head of the tourism agency BakiTur under Confederation of Trade Unions of Azerbaijan, commenting on the state of tourism business in the country on the background of the continuing financial crisis.

According to him, the tourism industry of Azerbaijan also needs to adjust to the financial crisis.

"The issue of the reasons of "stable" tariffs on tourism in Azerbaijan, despite the observed influence of the crisis on the country, is being raised in the related structures.

Tariffs on both staying in hotels and restaurant prices remain high. Though, the dop in tariffs in tourism services could be observed in summer when the number of tourists in northern regions dropped significantly due to the poor state of roads in this direction (Baku-Guba, Baku-Gusar highways repair)", said Mamedov.

He noted that if we want to reduce tariffs on tourism services in the country to encourage tourists, we must also reduce the cost of air flights in the country. According to him, despute the three-fold reduction in oil prices on the world market, the price on air tickets in the country has not reduced,

"Under the influence on crisis, prices on tourism services have dropped both in Turkey and European states... On the whole, in most countries with the developed tourism, the prices on tourism services are set depending on the season and as a rule, in winter the tariffs are declining significantly, despite the growth of expenses on services (due to heating and so on).

At the same time, in Azerbaijan prices do not change depending on the season. In fact, Azerbaijan must prolong the tourism season, which lasts of the two months of summer. Therefore, the tourism companies try to use this period maximally to get due revenues", said Mamedov and concluded that it is necessary to create the due infrastructure to prolong the tourism season in Azerbaijan.

/Day.Az/