Tourism

Tourism

Survey: expensiveness of air tickets in Azerbaijan hinders development of tourism

25 April 2011 11:11 (UTC +04:00)

According to APA-Economics, it was noted at the meeting in Azerbaijan Entrepreneurship Confederation.

Chairman of AEC Tourism Commission, head Baku Tur Company Faiz Mamadov noted that, AZALâ€™s prices are very expensive that the foreign tourists prefer to rest in other countries. So that, the money which Russian tourists spend for living in 3-stars hotel in Turkey, two times meals per day, greeting and seeing off in the airport, air ticket for Moscow-Antalya-Moscow flight ($500-600) is enough to buy on air ticket for Moscow-Baku-Moscow flight: â€œThatâ€™s why, it is difficult for local tourism companies to attract the Russian citizens to Azerbaijanâ€.

Azerbaijan Regional development Centreâ€™s Director Chingiz Ismayilov notes that it is possible to fly from Tbilisi to Istanbul for â‚¬79: â€œIt means that, in future, Azerbaijanis will fly to Istanbul not directly, but firstly to Tbilisi by train or bus, then to Istanbulâ€.

Department chair of Azerbaijan Tourism Institute Bahadir Bilalov also confirmed high price of air tickets in Azerbaijan. To him, airport duties are higher in Azerbaijan (AZN 36) even than US airports ($12-15): â€œIn general, it is possible to fly to Morocco from Spain with amount of airport dues in Baku (ticket price to Morocco is â‚¬26)â€.

To words of Faiz Mammadov, need for tourism objects in the region has increased due to incidents took place in Arabic countries and decrease of tourists visiting these countries. It especially concerns Russian tourists. To him, Azerbaijani side can attract 10-15% of Russian tourists by pursuing right policy in this direction: â€œIt means a few hundred thousand of tourists. But high price does not give a chance to itâ€.