Foreign

Home page

Foreign

Azerbaijani lawmaker calls for visa-free regime for Western and Iranian tourists

Gudrat Hasanguliyev, deputy chairman of the parliamentary committee on defense, security and combating corruption

02 December 2025 13:19 (UTC +04:00)

A proposal has been made to abolish the visa regime for citizens of the United States, Iran, and European countries in order to develop tourism in Azerbaijan, APA reports.

The proposal was voiced at today’s meeting of the Milli Majlis (Azerbaijan's Parliament) by Gudrat Hasanguliyev, Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Defense, Security, and Counter-Corruption.

This year, the number of tourists coming to Azerbaijan decreased by 1.7% compared to last year. For example, the number of tourists coming from Europe decreased by 21.7%, and the number of tourists coming from Central Europe decreased by 10%. However, in neighboring Georgia, the number of tourists increased by 6.6% compared to January-September of last year. While 2,171,000 tourists came to Azerbaijan, 4,307,000 tourists came to Georgia, which is much smaller than us.

Azerbaijan should abolish the visa regime for citizens of the United States, Iran and European countries. At the same time, Azerbaijan should conduct an investigation into why tourists refuse to come to our country. This is largely due to the increase in the cost of these services in Azerbaijan. Air tickets are expensive; in general, prices in public catering facilities are excessively high, and there are no cheap hotels in Azerbaijan. This directly affects the number of tourists," Gudrat Hasanguliyev emphasized.