...

Azerbaijan talks decrease in tourist flow due to closure of land borders

Tourism Materials 20 April 2023 11:40 (UTC +04:00)
Azerbaijan talks decrease in tourist flow due to closure of land borders
Humay Aghajanova
Humay Aghajanova
Read more

BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 20. The closure of land borders following the quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a decrease in tourist flow to Azerbaijan, Chairman of the Board of the Azerbaijan Small and Medium Business Development Agency (SMBDA) Orkhan Mammadov said at a public discussion themed "Tourism business: current situation and prospects" in Baku, Trend reports.

"At the same time, it gave impetus to the development of domestic tourism. Therefore, appropriate measures should be taken by travel agencies and the private sector to promote domestic tourism, and encourage the local population to use tourism opportunities within the country,” he said. “However, in all cases, the complete removal of restrictions in the relevant direction will lead to faster development of the tourism sector and the growth of income in this area.”

Mammadov added that ‘smart villages’ are being built in the Azerbaijani liberated territories, which also creates conditions for the development of tourism.

Azerbaijan has been keeping its land borders closed due to the pandemic since 2020. One of the areas most affected during it was tourism. Thus, if 3.2 million tourists visited Azerbaijan in 2019, then in 2020 this figure amounted to 795,000, and in 2021 decreased to 791,800.

Nevertheless, as the epidemiological situation countrywide was improving, the quarantine regime requirements were eased. Owing to this, the number of tourists visiting Azerbaijan increased to 1.6 million people in 2022.

Recently, Azerbaijan has extended the special quarantine regime till July 1, 2023, 06:00 (GMT +4).

Tags:
Latest

Latest