Tourism: Not Rosy Summer

The summer tourist season in Azerbaijan ended. All indications are that the results will be bleak, as government sources do not comment on the situation. There are no state statistics through September, but there is indirect evidence that the government plans did not come true.

Official Baku has high hopes for the first European Games held in the Azerbaijani capital in June. But the Foreign Ministry said that the number of foreigners, who arrived in Azerbaijan to participate in the first European Games, "has exceeded 28 thousand." The Olympic Stadium in Baku holds nearly 70,000 viewers, which means that foreign tourists did not take even half of this stadium.

In all likelihood, the final figure, which will give the number of foreign tourists throughout the State Statistics Committee in 2015, will not exceed 2.5 million visitors. This is evidenced by statistics from previous years. In 2014, Azerbaijan was visited by 2 million 297.8 thousand tourists, which is 211 thousand less than in 2013, the State Statistics Committee reported. In comparison with 2013, there was a decrease of 8.4%. On average, each foreign tourist spent AZN 593 in Azerbaijan last year.

In the table of the State Statistics Committee under the indicator "the number of received and sent tourists" for 2014 a total of 92,305 people was indicated, of whom 81,648 were Azerbaijani tourists that left the country. That is, the organized tour groups arrived in the country only included 10,647 foreigners, who on average spent 5 days in Azerbaijan. In view of the arrivals at the European Games this year's figure for this category may increase.

The basis for the statement that in 2015 the overall numbers are not high is the economic crisis in Russia, which supplies the largest number of tourists to Azerbaijan, which adversely affects the tourism in Azerbaijan. Last year the country ranked 84 in the competitiveness of the travel and tourism sector, prepared by the World Economic Forum. In 2013, Azerbaijan took the 78^th place. By comparison, having much lower economic potential, Georgia in 2014 was at the 71^st place. The country was visited by 6 million tourists.

In Georgia, where the population is about three times less than in Azerbaijan, the number of tourists only for 9 months of 2015 exceeded the number of inhabitants of this country. Tbilisi has published data on the tour this year. Since the beginning of 2015 to September, the number of foreign visitors, compared to the same period last year, increased by 6.7% and amounted to more than 4 million 491 thousand people, according to the National Tourism Administration of Georgia. At the third place in the number of international tourist arrivals in Georgia in 2015 are citizens of Azerbaijan – 1,053,643 people.

Azerbaijani tourists enthusiastically talk about the low prices and high quality service in Georgia. Basically Azerbaijanis prefer to rest in Batumi and other Black Sea resorts of this country. One of them spoke of the cost of living in a cottage in the Azerbaijani resort of Guba. Overnight in the cottage cost 180 manat to his family, and breakfast was not included in the price.

In Azerbaijan, there are 210 hotels, 152 of which are at work in Baku and the surrounding area, says booking.com, through which foreign people reserve places in hotels.

In the same booking.com you can see the quality of those hotels. Bristol Hotel (four stars) is situated in the center of Baku. According to the visiting Russian tourists, it has no lift, everything is expensive, mosquitoes fly in the rooms, and a wardrobe in one of the rooms was broken, which the workers quickly repaired. All of them complain about the meager breakfast. There are reports of a creaky bed. Television is regulated only by holding the remote control closely to the TV set. The staff began to change the shampoo and so on only after a reminder. “The hangers are as if from dry cleaning and brought only upon request. The second set of towels in a double room is brought only upon request. The rooms have no or weak WiFi,” the Russians write. The guests praise the friendly staff and the caring administrator.

In the town of Guba, at the Guba Retro Hotel, the repair is outdated and guests are not given toothpaste and toothbrushes even after the request, the guests inform.

The prices are high in the hotels in Azerbaijan, while Baku has only six hostels, in which the price for a tourist ranges from 12 to 25 manats per day. The Deputy Chairman of the Association of Tourism of Azerbaijan (AzTA) Muzaffar Agakerim reported about the lack of hostels. According to him, foreign investors are interested in the construction of hostels in Azerbaijan, but AzTA prefers that local investors should invest in this sector.

The quality of service in hotels of Azerbaijan was also discussed at the Cabinet meeting with the President on July 13. There the Culture and Tourism Minister Abulfaz Garayev promised to improve the performance. Every year the number of employees in the tourism industry increases. Last year, this figure reached 41,886 people, but it cannot talk about improving the quality of service, as the increase in the number of people employed in the tourism industry is directly linked to the launch of new hotels in operation and especially the increasing family entertainment centers under construction in Azerbaijani regions. But they tend to receive local tourists.

A significant percentage of tourists in any country make transit visits. A lot of Azerbaijanis go to Georgia to travel by lowcosters from Batumi or Tbilisi to European countries, as the price of tickets for them is very low. Azerbaijanis prefer to waste their time and effort and to fly abroad from Tbilisi. For example, you can fly to Warsaw from Tbilisi for 25 Euros, while a ticket in a compartment of a railway carriage on the route Baku-Tbilisi is on sale for 30 Euros.

The actual problem of high prices for tickets at the Azerbaijani carriers was also seen in the context of the development of the tourism sector at the July meeting of the government. Following strict instructions from Ilham Aliyev, the state airline AZAL made cheaper its tickets to foreign countries, such as lowering the price of the ticket to Dubai and back to $ 90. Previously, the same ticket was sold at $ 160. AZAL announces the establishment of its lowcoster airlines. They also announced a 20% price discount on tickets in economy class for all areas, but it will apply only to 30% of the seats. These measures are expected to lead to an increase in the growth of tourists in Azerbaijan in 2016.