Olga Yakovina: "Azerbaijan provides incredible opportunities for tourists"

A solemn ceremony of awarding the winners of the National Geographic Traveler Awards 2018 took place in Moscow yesterday. The National Geographic Traveler magazine opened the voting for the best tourist destinations among the most popular leisure activities in 25 main nominations on June 22: 'Russian adventure recreation', 'Russian ethnic recreation', 'Russian excursion holidays', 'Russian ecological holidays', 'Russian alpine ski holidays', 'Russian wellness holidays', 'Russian gastronomic tourism', 'Russian resort hotel', 'Best Russian airlines', 'Beach vacation', 'Family vacation', 'Excursion vacation', 'Alpine ski vacation', 'Rural tourism', 'Gastronomic tourism', 'Adventure vacation', 'Discovery of the year', 'Wellness Vacation', 'Exotic vacation', 'Best international airline', 'Best resort hotel', 'Best cruises', 'Best Internet service', 'Best travel program' and 'Best travel blogger'.

The voting ended on October 12. National Geographic Traveler editor-in-chief Olga Yakovina told Vestnik Kavkaza about tourism innovations.

- It wasn't your first vote. Have any significant changes been noticed?

- The biggest changes concern, first of all, the number of participants, the number of voters. Every year it substantially increases. Changes also concern the number of nominations. For example, if initially there were only three nominations about leisure activities in Russia, then now we have nine of them. The number of nominations is increasing, because the number of travels increases and people become more sophisticated in this issue. There are much more categories in which they want to express their opinions.

- Do you mean that domestic tourism is growing?

- Both domestic and foreign travel - all types of tourism are growing, people like to travel despite any crises, and I understand them perfectly.

- What new directions in Russia and abroad have appeared recently?

-We have a nomination 'Discovery of the Year'. This year Iceland won it, which was discovered by many people indeed. There are some quite low cost flights now. This country, which has always been very exotic and inaccessible, was a 'bomb' this year. Iceland won with a crushing score. In general, new nominations, new directions appear constantly, because our world is huge, and one life isn't enough to see everything. And that's great.

- Do you have any surprise winners?

- Of course. This year, for example, we were greatly surprised by the winner in the 'Gastronomic tourism' nomination - Uzbekistan. It won in a landslide. It came as a surprise to us that so many people visited and appreciated merits of this country. Another surprise was the winner in the 'Russian ski vacation' nomination. Sochi has been winning for many years. It was difficult to compete with it. But this year Sheregesh won, and by a significant margin. Everyone who visited it last season rushed to vote for this ski resort.

- We, as Vestnik Kavkaza, would like to know about the Caucasus.

- Tourism has being actively developed there. People travel a lot to health resorts and ski resorts, and just for the weekend. They travel to Baku a lot. Baku was on the cover of the last issue of our magazine. Our guide to this city was prepared by insiders and city experts. This suggests that people like to go there, and we really like to write about these places.

- Have you been to Baku?

- Yes. And I would love to come back, I really liked it.

- How do you assess the tourism potential of Azerbaijan as a whole?

- It's huge. And it's just a beginning. There are so many unique opportunities in Azerbaijan! If we talk about Baku, this is an incredible combination of the old city of Icheri Sheher with modern, really cool architecture. Modern buildings designed by Zaha Hadid and other architects have changed the city greatly. Baku is constantly changing. Every time it's like you visit a new city. It has incredible opportunities for wilderness trips. Azerbaijan's nature is extraordinary. In terms of SPA, naphthalan resorts are completely unique, there is not more of that in the world. Alpine skiing tourism is developing. Not to mention the Azerbaijani cuisine! I'm getting hungry when I think about it.