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Azerbaijan's tourism can return to pre-COVID-19 level in 2024 - agency (Exclusive)

Tourism Materials 11 August 2021 13:58 (UTC +04:00)
Azerbaijan's tourism can return to pre-COVID-19 level in 2024 - agency (Exclusive)

ISMAYILLI, Azerbaijan, Aug.11

By Chingiz Safarli - Trend:

Azerbaijan will be able to return to the pre-COVID-19 level regarding tourism, hopefully, in 2023-2024, Fuad Naghiyev, chairman of the State Tourism Agency of Azerbaijan, told Trend.

According to Naghiyev, this mainly depends on the timing of the pandemic.

In 2019, over 3.2 million foreigners visited Azerbaijan. Most of them were tourists. From January to February 2020, this indicator had grown by 18 percent, but then the pandemic disrupted all our plans and caused great damage. This damage was inflicted on not only Azerbaijan, but also all the countries of the world, he noted.

“According to our optimistic forecasts, we’ll return to the pre-pandemic situation in 2023, however, a full recovery, in our opinion, will occur in 2024. In June, by the decree of Azerbaijan’s prime minister, tourists from 20 states were allowed to enter the country, but this doesn’t mean that the epidemiological situation isn’t taken into account,” the agency’s head said.

“Today we see that after the opening of the borders, the number of infection cases in some countries has increased. Our task, as the State Tourism Agency, is to attract more tourists to the country, but we must also take into account the pandemic," added Naghiyev.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @cingizsafarli

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