Over 10 thousand UAE tourists visited Azerbaijan in July

10,072 U.A.E tourists visited Azerbaijan in July. Compared to the same period of last year, this is a 100 times increase, the PR department of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said. The department said that this dramatic rise in numbers was achieved thanks to the intensified informative efforts, the opening of a representative office in the U.A.E in 2011, and the application of a simplified visa regime for U.A.E citizens in November 2015, APA reports. A series of analyses have revealed that the U.A.E and other Gulf countries are one of the priority destinations for Azerbaijani tourists. For this reason, it is expected that there will be more intensified marketing policies and campaigns targeting these countries. 

The inaugural European Games has done much to shine the spotlight on The Land of Fire, as the country gears up to receive five million annual tourists by 2020, and make tourism an integral part of its economy. Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism says Baku 2015 provided the biggest boost to the country’s collective and concentrated effort, and spokesperson Vugar Shikhamedov said just after the games that the opening ceremony was broadcast in 93 countries and watched by more than one billion people. He also noted that over the past year, 33 million people had gathered information about Azerbaijan through Google and 70 per cent of the views had been generated in the month before the games.

President Ilham Aliyev issued the clarion call to boost all aspects of tourism at a July cabinet meeting, when he emphasised the need for cheaper hotels, better prices, and higher standards. “A number of world-famous hotel brands are operating in the country, particularly in Baku,” he said. “They have their own price policy — we can’t interfere in this. But prices are also high in hotels that offer poor service, and prices are too high in regional hotels. The number of five-star hotels in Azerbaijan grows. However, there also should be two-star, three-star hotels.”