Azerbaijan Sees Increase In Tourism In First Half Of 2017

If the first eight months of 2017 are any indication, Azerbaijan is growing as a global tourist destination.

“During the first eight months of this year 1.818 million tourists have come to Azerbaijan, and they have spent 1.3 billion manats,” or nearly $765 million, said Azerbaijan’s Culture and Tourism Minister Abulfas Garayev on September 27 at an event dedicated to World Tourism Day.

Financial transactions of tourists during the first seven months of 2017 jumped by 97 percent, or around 703 million manats ($414 million), compared to the numbers recorded last year during the same period, according information provided by the ministry. According to the government’s statistics, last year the country received 2.248 million tourists.

Data shows that tourists stay in Azerbaijan for about five to seven days, with about three or four days spent in the capital city of Baku. The rest of the time is spent in the country’s various regions. The average expenditure of a single tourist in Azerbaijan is somewhere between $700 and $1,000.  

Azerbaijan’s tourist infrastructure is capable of accommodating between three and 3.5 million tourists per year. The country boasts more than 560 hotels and over 730 tourism companies.

Thus far in 2017 tourists have come from 139 different countries. Russia, Georgia, Turkey and Iran dominate the list, sending about 950,000 tourists.

Gulf Arabs have increasingly been visiting Azerbaijan, thanks to a change in visa rules implemented in February 2016. Since then, citizens can get a visa upon arrival at the airport.

The daily influx of foreigners from Gulf countries was between 600 and 1,000 in 2016, according to statistics provided by carriers that fly between Azerbaijan and the Gulf, including Azerbaijan Airlines, Fly Dubai and Qatar Airways.

During the first half of 2017, more than 44,000 tourists arrived in the country from the United Arab Emirates, which comprised a 338 percent increase from the previous year.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism is trying to attract tourists from South East Asian countries as well as China. The government has relaxed its visa rules for Chinese citizens, similar to what it implemented for Gulf states in 2016.

Around 23 percent more tourists came to Azerbaijan from the U.S. in 2017 than in 2016.