Tourism - extensive or intensive development?

The tourist season is in full swing. Officially, it began six weeks ago - on June 11. At the same time the hotels and inns were monitored.

     List of hospitable establishments in the past month have filled up six new objects. One administrator denied a license, but was replaced by another. For reference, in June there were issued licenses for the operation of three hotels (Azcot Hotel on the street. Nigar Rafibeyli, 20, Premier on the street Shamsi Ragimov, 28, and Shindan in the city of Astara), two recreation centers (Mavi Dalga near the Baku-Salyan highway and Lotus in Nabran) and the motel Maral at the 6th km of the road from the capital's airport to Zig.

    A little bit about the recreation center Lotus. For violation of rules of operation lost his license to operate the former administrator, Baku resident Shahlar Nasirov. The license was granted to Zaman Nasirov from Monidigyah in the Lerik region. The man Nasirov’s middle name is the same, but no one dared to ask about the coincidence in the names.

    According to the spokesman of the Ministry Intigam Humbatov, added to the list along with the objects of their number exceeded 520. All in all, Azerbaijan has 145 hotels, including 7 in Nakhchivan, 74 - in Baku and Absheron, other regions, mainly in the north and north-west. Motels are 23, one of which is on the road Ordubad - Nakhchivan, 6 - in Baku and the surrounding peninsula. There are 122 recreation centers operating in the country, including the Olympic Complex, too. There are 31 houses for the reception of guests, including 29 in Baku. In addition, there are 50 health centers, three boarding centers and so on. In addition, there are 13 tourism information centers and 185 tourist companies and agencies.

    Last year, the number of accommodations was equal to 33,393. This exceeds the 2010 figure by 11.8%. "We can say that this year's opportunities for receiving guests increased by 10%. This is not the exact figures, but they will not be greatly different from those which will be announced on September 27, based on official data," said Humbatov.

    He is optimistic about the quality of service. Ministerial Order, under which licenses may be deprived of those hotel complexes where there are no certified (higher education), a specialist in this area, many defendants committed the business to be more responsible. In particular, almost everywhere been established activities in accordance with the technologies that are trained graduates of the local Institute of Tourism.

    "Tomorrow, July 26, in Shamkir district board will be visiting the ministry, which, among other things, will be voiced by the real situation in the western economic region," said the spokesman.

    Meanwhile, the basic parameters, except for extensive growth, leave much to be desired. So, on the basis of official figures for the end of last season (the outcome of this will be announced September 27), we can say that enterprises engaged directly in the field of tourism received only 22,634,800 manats and had costs of 20,662,000 manats. In addition, the earnings related made up 7 million manat. The population purchased 42,583 blank accommodation tickets from the ministry. If we show the financial performance, we find that 22.58 million manat was spent by the local citizens to rest abroad and 2.02 million AZN to rest in Azerbaijan, and AZN 4.71 million was paid by foreigners wishing to come here (source - the book "Tourism and Services - 2012 ", published by the Ministry in Azerbaijani and English languages).

    According to the head of the department "Organization of the tourist business and technology", Institute of Tourism Bilalov Bahadir, the trend of preference of foreign resorts is inevitable for several reasons. Do not solve the problem of visa regime. If before the issue was decided at the airport, now needs approval from the consulate of Azerbaijan in foreign countries. "In the past year to visit me was to visit a group of tourists from Finland. Since the passage of the visa procedures they had to travel to another Nordic country, they abandoned the undertaking," says an experienced specialist. Interfere with the unreal relationship between price and quality of rest.

    In addition, many companies claiming to travel companies, in fact, are agencies that provide mediation services. This leads to higher prices, but has no effect on quality. Airport artificially inflating the bar charges, which also affects the willingness of foreigners to come here. Over 70% of tourists visiting Azerbaijan come with a business mission - business or participate in various activities. This year, the relative influx of tourists has been associated with the conduct of the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. It is no accident that in the regions is not so many tourists. According to Bilalov, if we reanimate forgotten forms of tourism such as horse riding, mountain, river, archeological tourism, popular, even in the 60s, the 70s of last century, guests can enhance the interest of the regions.

     Basically, people coming to Azerbaijan from Russia, Georgia and Turkey are Azerbaijanis that mainly have the passports of these countries – they are also registered as tourists at the customs. Only 1% of the visitors visit Azerbaijan for treatment (mainly in the health centers Naftalan and Absheron).

    With regard to the reluctance of our tourists to spend money to local service providers, there should be only compared conditions. Last year, the Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfaz Garayev visited several recreation centers with the inspection, issued a verdict to reduce rates for guests staying in regional hotels. Prices fell on average by 20% - from 50 to 40, from 40 to 35 manats a day, and so on. However, it still is not out of the situation. Local tourist does not want to spend a minimum of 800 manat per person (+ incidental expenses, which amounts to $ 1,200-1,500) for the three weeks of rest, if it is for the same money (a little more expensive, due to the flight) can get much better service in Turkey. As for Georgia, resorts of the Caucasus, the Ukraine, there is a better service and lower prices.

    It turns out that the local tourist is the best indicator of the state of tourism infrastructure. This will be an objective measure. One official fact is that last year 22.58 million manat was paid by the Azerbaijani citizens for holidays abroad, and 2.02 million manat - to enjoy the local resorts and recreation centers, which is good evidence of the aforesaid.

    In 2011, with the assistance of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism the coalition Support for Tourism was set up, including representatives of travel agencies and some NGOs. As long as they make plans, the local tourists prefer to rest abroad, and foreigners prefer among the regional countries not only Turkey and Russia, but even Georgia that recently started to develop its tourism infrastructure (due to the Azeri investment, too). - 17D-