The Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan hosted an exclusive meeting on tourism advancement at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Bahrain last month. The meeting welcomed more than 50 specialists, including deputy CEO Gulf Air Captain Waleed Abdul Hameed Al Alawi, dignitaries, leaders of travel industry and media representatives. The event was organised by the Representative Office of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Azerbaijan in GCC, Atlantis Holidays.
Azerbaijan witnessed a 30-fold growth in overnight visits from the GCC market last year, and a massive spike in 2017 with more than eight-fold rise in visitors from Bahrain alone. Abulfas Garayev, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Culture and Tourism, revealed the country’s latest success and improvement projects with strategies directed at drawing more Bahraini tourists. “We are having this exclusive meeting in Bahrain, given the influence of this market to Azerbaijani tourism. Bahrainis are great people who are respected and love to travel. And Bahrain is assuredly among the dominant five countries with tourists visiting Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is an outstanding destination for GCC travellers, particularly the Bahrainis. We share great culture, and Azerbaijan being a diverse destination it offers great halal food, scenery, shopping and easy accessibility because of its closeness, just 2 and half hours from Bahrain. Besides that, Bahrainis get visas on arrival to Azerbaijan and can even get advance visas online.” Azerbaijan Airlines, Fly Dubai, Air Arabia, Qatar Airways, Jazeera Airways, and Wataniya Air connect the country to the GCC. Etihad Airways will also launch flights to Azerbaijan starting March 2018.