Azerbaijani tourism companies develop tour packages for new routes

Annually, both in summer and in winter, the tourism sector in Azerbaijan revives, and the dynamics of both domestic and foreign tourism are growing. For this reason, tourism companies start preparations for winter tourism in October, Ahmad Gurbanov, Chairman of the Board of the Azerbaijani Tourism Association (AzTA), told Report, adding that tourism companies have launched tour packages for the winter months.

"Now the summer is over, students have returned to universities, and there are also those who have returned from vacation. Therefore, in the language of tourism, the "dead season" continues. Winter is coming. Due to the holidays in winter, people prefer to rest in this season. In this regard, both tourism companies and tourism agencies are already preparing for winter. Tourism companies are already preparing tour packages for new destinations. We can now see advertisements for new programs and tour packages related to winter tourism. Winter tourism in Azerbaijan is mainly the activity of winter and summer tourism complexes in Shahdag and Tufandag. People flock to these destinations more to both ski and see snow. This year, as in previous ones, there will be more demand for those venues.”

Gurbanov also spoke about the innovations in the country's tourism sector: "During the pandemic, tourism companies have benefited from the gap to create new tourist routes, and this year, we see that tourism companies already have new tour packages. They offer these packages for domestic tourism. Due to the pandemic, the number of foreign tourists is currently small compared to other years. Considering that the borders are also closed, we will see more revival in domestic tourism this year. Our local citizens mostly visit our regions for domestic tourism. Winter tourism takes place in several directions, and now we see more appeals for the Shahdag and Tufandag winter-summer tourism complexes.

“At the same time, various types of hotels in our regions have already completed preparations for winter tourism. In the coming months, we will see people visiting the regions in connection with this type of tourism. We are also establishing relations with foreign partners, and both our tourists, who want to spend the winter outside our country will be able to travel abroad, and we will see that our tourists will go to regions more often. We also periodically offer our recommendations to tourism companies in our meetings to organize routes from traditional places to new ones. They also prepare their tour packages accordingly,” he said.

A. Gurbanov stressed that there are wide opportunities for winter tourism in our liberated regions as well: "Infrastructure projects are underway in the liberated areas. Once they are completed, we will witness the visits of our citizens to Karabakh region. It also has a high potential for winter tourism. We can apply many types of tourism in Karabakh. One of them is winter tourism, which will use its great potential in the future. We can expect the construction of new winter and summer complexes in Karabakh. Taking into account the vast nature and climatic conditions of Karabakh, we can say that we will have the opportunity to do great work in winter tourism there.”