Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.9
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Azerbaijan needs to establish a visa-free regime with majority of countries and increase the number of two, three and four-star hotels in order to even more develop its tourism industry, general manager of Grand Hotel Kempinski Geneva Thierry Lavalley said in an interview with Trend.
“I think the number one priority is to cancel the visa regime for a very large number of countries. The day the country will have no visa requirement, it will suddenly open the doors to many people who want to travel to Azerbaijan. When there is no a visa regime, you can decide at the last minute to travel to any place. This will help to increase the number of people visiting the country,” he said.
Lavalley pointed out that Azerbaijan is more and more opening to the world.
“On average you have 2 million visitors per year and I predict this number will increase in the years to come,” he added.
As for the hotel business, Lavalley noted that Azerbaijan has a fantastic hardware in this sphere: the building of new hotels in Azerbaijan is tremendous and is exactly like everywhere in Western Europe.
“Where you need to improve - this is the question of a very little time – is the software. The software is how the people working in the hotel can improve the way of rendering service and the way they are offering a global experience to clients. That’s to say, you just need training, which is the key element to increase the know-how of staff,” he said.
Lavalley noted that nowadays, the guest experience is much more important than the hotel experience.
“People that are traveling to hotels are not looking anymore for a king-size bed, flat-screen TV or jacuzzi in the bath. They are looking much more for a global experience and the staff of very single hotel can bring this experience,” he added.
Touching upon the hotel types in Azerbaijan, the general manager noted that five-star hotels are necessary when opening the country for tourists.
“You should always open your country or your capital with a five-star deluxe hotel. But the second priority is to open the market with three or four even two-star international brands. If you do so and at the same time cancel visa regime, you will be able to offer many other travelers with a lower budget to come and visit your country. For example, Dubai was very well known for five-star hotels, but now they have realized that if they want to have even more tourists traveling to Dubai, they should open their hotel market to two, three and four-star hotels,” he added.
Talking about the significance of such events as Baku Shopping Festival in terms of attracting tourists to the country, Lavalley said that all what brings animation to a city is a good point.
“Animation is the name of the game. Animation is what allows you to win the battle against many other cities in the world, because at the end of the day, Baku is competing with many other touristic destinations around the world and around the region,” he added.
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