Azerbaijan Launches New Global Tourism Offices In Europe & Far East

The State Tourism Agency of Azerbaijan plans to launch new global offices that intend to make the Caspian country one of the top tourist destinations in the region, amidst record-breaking numbers over the past two years.

Fuad Naghiyev, the chairman of the agency, said Great Britain, France, Iran and South Korea have been chosen as the next destinations for opening representative offices, in addition to the six already in operation since December.

"From the end of 2018, six permanent representative offices opened in Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, India, China, and Germany,” Naghiyev said in his address at the 18th Azerbaijan International Travel & Tourism Fair in Baku, according to Oxu.az.

Representatives from the tourism industry from around the world and Azerbaijan are in Baku for the fair, known as AITF 2019, which started yesterday and wraps up on Saturday.

“Starting in 2018, we are represented at various international exhibitions and events. Of course, this process will continue. The goal is to inform a wider audience about the tourism potential of the country, to attract more tourists from the new target markets.”

National and regional representative offices, travel agencies, airlines, hotel chains and health resorts all have their services on display at the Baku’s Expo Center. Belarus, Bulgaria, China, the Dominican Republic, Italy, Georgia, Morocco, Thailand and the Czech Republic are among the countries that are showcasing their tourism potential via national stands.

“We believe that, along with the new tourism brand of the country, marketing measures will yield results,” Naghiyev said, referring to a recent rebranding of Azerbaijan’s tourism image. “First of all, the work done in previous years has been revised and systematized. It is also important to establish effective interaction between business structures and public institutions,” he said.

Azerbaijan presented publicly a new tourism campaign “Take Another Look!” in October of last year, rebranding the country’s international tourism logo to help market the South Caucasus country, with a goal to make it one of the world’s top ‘must see’ destinations by 2025. 

In 2018, the tourist influx into the country reached 2.8 million, which is 153,000 tourists more than the travelers that visited in 2017, according to the State Tourism Agency. Around 364,000 travelers arrived in Azerbaijan in January and February of this year.