Opening new hotels in Azerbaijan to reduce prices

Azerbaijan's Ministry of Culture and Tourism has described objective reasons for high prices in Azerbaijan hotels. The main reason is the lack of strong competition in the hotel business, chief of staff of the Ministry Firudin Gurbanov said on Monday.

He said in the first years of independence, the number of accommodation facilities was very small in Azerbaijan, and the level of their services was very low and did not meet international standards. Therefore, the prices were high in hotels such as the Hyatt Regency and Europe.
Gurbanov said non-competitiveness in the market conditions contributes to higher prices, so it needs to increase competition in order to reduce prices. After improving the competitiveness, the market will itself regulate the prices.

The investments in the tourism sector have increased as a result of work carried out by state, said Gurbanov. As a result, the number of hotels in Azerbaijan much increased as compared to previous years. In the first years of independence, the number of accommodation facilities and hotels did not reach 100 in Azerbaijan, but now has reached 499. All these have increased competition in the hotel business.

Gurbanov said today six "five star" hotels are expected to be commissioned in Baku. After this, the competition between the "five star" hotels will increase, which will reduce prices.

"Earlier there was only Hyatt Regency, and all arriving guests were forced to stay there.

However, the biggest hotels belonging to the global network of hotels are opened in Baku today.

Recently Kempinski Hotel was opened, and by the end of the year, Four Seasons Hotel will be opened in Azerbaijan. Later Mariotte Hotel and Flame Towers Hotel will be opened. After the opening of these hotels, the tourists arriving in the country will have a choice. Named hotels must increase the level of services and relatively reduce prices," said Gurbanov.

Gurbanov mentioned the importance of strengthening competition in the restaurant chain.

According to him, if earlier there were very few restaurants meeting world standards in Azerbaijan, now restaurants operate with Italian, Brazilian, Chinese, Japanese cuisine and cuisines of other countries.

Prices in this area will also decline as competition increases, said Gurbanov.


/Trend/