...

Ministry: Over one third of hotels operate without license in Azerbaijan

Business Materials 29 April 2011 18:44 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, April 29 /Trend A.Akhundov/

Based on the joint research of the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee and Culture and Tourism Ministry, 477 hotels and hotel-type facilities operate in the country, head of the Ministry's Department for research, statistics and licensing Rahman Orujlu said in an interview with the Emlak Bazarı paper of the NGO Property market participants. Only 307 of them have a relevant license, he added.
An appropriate license should be obtained to carry out tourism activities in Azerbaijan. He said recently the percentage of attraction of hotels and hotel-type facilities to the licensing has increased dramatically.

"Certain documents should be submitted to the ministry to receive a license. Unfortunately, some owners of hotels and hotel-type facilities make mistakes during the construction. As a result, the facility can not obtain certain documents despite the fact that it was already built. Of course, we can not issue a license if the facility did not submit the necessary documents," Orujlu said.
The ministry will take strict measures from now , he added.
"The leadership's has a principled position that illegal facilities should be suspended. I want to note that most of such illegal facilities are located outside of Baku," Orujlu said.

The ministry issues a license to hotels and hotel-type facilities for five years with conditions for payment of state fees in the amount of 1,500 manat and for tourist activities - as a term of five years upon payment of state fees in the amount of 5,500 manat.

Orujlu said some employers may wrongly speculate on his hotel any star category.
"However, under existing law, a category can be assigned to the hotel only after the conclusion of the ad hoc expert group and the certification committee consisting of representatives from a number of relevant government authorities," he said.
Today, 15 hotels and hotel-type facilities are five star, 37 - four, 21 - three-star, three - two stars and one - one star.

"The category is awarded to hotels for three years and a state fee is not supposed for this. The entrepreneur simply applies for the category, the team conducts inspection and if all goes well, the facility gets a star. During these three years the ministry has no right to inspect the facility for correspondence provided by the category, "- said Orujlu.
The official exchange rate is 0.7914 manat to $1 on April 29.

Latest

Latest