Minsk. 11 July. REPORT.AZ/ The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC ) prepares economic report for each country. According to the Council's report, foreign citizens have spent over $ 2 billion in Azerbaijan in 2016.
Deputy director of the Tourism Department of Azerbaijan's Culture and Tourism Ministry Rauf Pashayev told in his interview with Report News Agency.
He said that the situation is the same in Georgia: "Tourists coming to Azerbaijan spend more money. The number of tourists in Georgia is probably too high. But there are not too many rich tourists. They go and stay in tents, eat Khachapuri every day. They almost do not spend money. On the other hand, it is said that 6 million tourists came to Georgia. This is not really the case.
Tourists are those who stay in any country for more than 24 hours. In Georgia, 60 percent of 6 million people are transit passengers. Since I am from Georgia, I am closely acquainted with that region. Those who live in Gazakh, and Agstafa cross border and do shopping from duty-free. In fact, they are not tourists. The Georgian side also acknowledges that 60 percent of 60 million are aliens. They are either transit passers or a day visitors. Tourists are rest 40%. For example, they cross Armenia from Russia to Georgia for 3-4 hours. Is that right to call them tourists?
Although there are over 2 mln tourists travel to Azerbaijan, 90-95% of them stay in Azerbaijan for more than 24 hours.