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Four reasons why Azerbaijan is attractive to foreigners

12 November 2014 [10:39] - TODAY.AZ

By Aygun Badalova

Azerbaijan called the land of fire has served across the centuries as the gateway between Europe and Asia. Its strategic geographic location makes a country unique in terms of historical and cultural aspects.

Today Azerbaijan has an image of a beautiful country, which is being developing very fast and attracting more and more attention from all over the world.

And now we can see a great interest from more and more people to come to Azerbaijan. Why is Azerbaijan so attractive today to foreigners? Here are the top reasons.

Tourism is booming

Tourism in Azerbaijan is developing day by day, and today it has become one of the most important and priority sectors of the economy.

The fact that Azerbaijan is rich in terms of historical and cultural aspects, rooted traditions presents a strong attraction for many international tourists.

The distinctive feature of tourism in Azerbaijan is the variety of types it offers. Beautiful nature, characterized by a diverse landscape, magnificent architecture, rich cultural heritage as well as the overall development of the country present lots of opportunities for pastime.

Depending on preferences, you can choose any type pf tourism you are inclined to: beach tourism, mountain, urban, medical and even exotic.

Another advantage of tourism in Azerbaijan is that the climate in the country enables to organize either summer or winter holidays. In particular, Azerbaijan is becoming a ski destination with two great attractive ski resorts – Shahdag ski resort in Qusar and Tufan Ski Resort in Gabala.

Overall tourism in Azerbaijan is growing very fast, and has great opportunities for development in the future. Tourism in the country has been set as one of the main priority directions of the non-oil sector.

More than 2.5 million foreign tourists visited Azerbaijan in 2013, according to the ministry of culture and tourism. Of those, about 43 percent are CIS countries.

More than 100 tourism companies covering all regions of the republic are engaged in accommodation of foreign tourists and servicing the local population and 149 hotels have been officially registered.

Lots of sports events

Azerbaijan has already become a venue for a number of sport events.

Sport in Azerbaijan has ancient roots, and today sport in the country is gradually reaching a new level. In addition to its traditional sports, there are a number of sports that are incredibly well developed. Wrestling, boxing, karate, volleyball, swimming, power lifting, football and chess are all played at an international level.

Azerbaijan has already gained confidence from international sport community and more often presents as a host country for different international sport events.

We can see that the country is fast becoming a sporting hub by starting recently cementing its reputation as a European Destination for sporting events. It named the inaugural European Games 2015, the Formula One Grand Prix of Europe 2016, the Islamic Games 2017 and the UEFA 2020 quarter finals as just a selection of the International Sporting Events Baku and Azerbaijan has recently been chosen as hosts.

The Baku 2015 European Games, which will be held in Baku in 2015, are called in the story the first ever major multi-sport event for the entire continent. The European Games will bring together more than 6,000 of the continent’s finest athletes over 17 days of competition, in an exciting range of traditional and innovative sports.

This will be huge sport event, just like many others to be held in Azerbaijan in the future, which will attract lots of tourist to the country and will strengthen its position on the international arena.

Various conferences and exhibitions

Azerbaijan is also a venue for different international conferences and exhibitions. Every year the country hosts such kind of events in different spheres: oil and gas, transport, agriculture, IT, tourism and many others.

Here are some large conferences and exhibitions that are scheduled in 2015 in Azerbaijan: 14th International

Travel and Tourism Fair, 14th International Transport, Transit and Logistics Exhibition, 5th Caspian International Road Infrastructure and Public Transport Exhibition, 21th Azerbaijan International Food Industry Exhibition, 22nd International Caspian Oil and Gas Exhibition, 9th Azerbaijan International Education Exhibition, 21th Azerbaijan International Telecommunications and Information Technologies Exhibition and Conference.

By holding such large events Azerbaijan appears as a platform for discussions of important issues on at the international level. Lots of high level officials, specialists, experts and representatives of world companies gather together, exchanging views and experiences.

Favorable investment opportunities

Azerbaijan is the country with huge investment opportunities.

Political stability and economic development of the country have increased foreign states’ interest in long term investing in Azerbaijani economy.

Over $190 billion has been invested in Azerbaijan's economy since the country gained independence, and the foreign exchange reserves of the country stand at the level of $53 billion.

The total amount of foreign investments in Azerbaijan's economy amounted to 3.517 billion AZN in January-September 2014 or by 17.9 percent more compared to the same period of 2013, according to the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee.

Constant growth of foreign investments in the country shows that Azerbaijan is a very reliable partner and a very attractive country for foreign investors. The economic reforms, economic liberalization, increasing the credit rating of Azerbaijan by the world leading rating agencies, the policy of integration into the world economy contribute to the growth of foreign investments.

The main factors that attract foreigners to invest in Azerbaijan are: favorable condition for foreign investments; rapid development of the country’s economy; the country’s strategic position; rich natural resources; political stability.


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