Azerbaijan has sufficient potential to receive up to 3.5 million tourists annually, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfas Garayev said.
He said that in order to achieve such a result Azerbaijan’s tourism sector should develop.
"The number of three-star hotels should increase in Azerbaijan. Over the past years, Azerbaijan has been developing luxury tourism. We have been a country actively developing the energy sector. Various businessmen, people engaged in the energy sphere came to Azerbaijan. Due to this fact, five-star hotels appeared in the country," Trend cited the minister as saying.
Garayev stressed that given the current conditions, development of Azerbaijan’s economy puts forward other requirements for development of the sphere, so the country is gradually switching to mass tourism.
“To do this, it is necessary to carry out certain work, infrastructure must develop in a different way, more affordable tourism services should appear,” he added.
The minister also said that this year, domestic tourism has shown good results for the first time. "Following the summer season, the practical filling of the hotels made up to 95%, and this suggests that there is great potential for the construction of 2- and 3 -star hotels for the local population,"Garayev stressed.
