Caspian Energy (CE): Reforms are being undertaken in Azerbaijan. Road maps on development of the tourism sector have been adopted. Which changes are taking place in this sector?
Kemal Eratay, General Manager of Grand Hotel Europe: Reforms that have been introduced in the tourism sector in recent years substantially increased the number of tourists visiting the country. I believe the growth rates will be much higher. In this regard, Hotel Europe is raising its level and providing high quality services in accordance with expectations of tourists and world standards because we see a constant growth of requirements of coming tourists. Enhancement of the service level together with the hospitality of the Azerbaijani people will promote further rapid development of the tourism sector, as well as increase a quantity of tourists visiting Azerbaijan. It will also lead to increase of revenues in the tourism sector.
CE: Which measures need to be taken to ensure further development of the tourism sector in Azerbaijan?
Kemal Eratay: The work in this sector has to be carried out under joint cooperation of the private sector with the government agencies. The state is now thoroughly considering possibilities of lending support and problems that the private sector faces. We hope that the governmental support to the private sector will give a momentum to the development of both the hotel business and the tourism sector in general. The most important thing in this process is a reception of e-visas which is practiced in the whole world now. It is of big importance to us because we very often see how a guest gets a rejection for a visa at the last moment. It negatively impacts on the work of hotels.
We expect that reforms introduced in relation to the visa reception process will make it possible to witness a noticeable improvement in the tourism sector.
As far as the hotel business is concerned, we expect a governmental support in terms of utility costs which account for the highest share of expenses of hotels. The growth of the number of guests is directly associated with the increase of the service quality while the recent increase of tariffs on utilities has very negatively impacted on the tourism sector because we have to spend funds, aimed at service quality improvement, on utility costs. Possible discounts in utilities for hotels would make it possible to spend the mentioned funds on improvement of service of guests. We hope for radical changes to be made by the state in this direction because electricity, gas and water absorb a sufficient amount of funds in the hotel business.
CE: Which measures have to be taken to increase revenues of the tourism sector in general?
Kemal Eratay: It is necessary to increase the types of services in order to develop the tourism sector. According to the calculations, the duration of stay of tourists in Azerbaijan makes about 4 days on average. The prolongation of the state of tourists in the country up to 7 days would increase revenues gained from the tourism sector almost twice as much. The only way in this case is to have the assortment of tourism services increased. A broad-scale work is currently underway in this direction in order to develop the tourism potential of regions, especially in Guba, Gabala and Shahdag. This potential exists in other regions as well. This work will extend an average duration of stay of tourists in the country and in this way raise revenues of the field.
CE: Hotel Europe has a rich history and took an active part in large events hosted in Azerbaijan. Which programs will the Hotel offer to guests of the Islamic Solidarity Games and F1?
Kemal Eratay: Hotel Europe is an integral part of the history of Azerbaijan and I am very proud to be a manager of this hotel. The hotel met the expectations of clients on the highest level during both the European Games and F1. Comments of our clients and online comments let us say that we managed to manifest Azerbaijani people’s hospitality.
At present we are making renovation changes within the work of the hotel and are ready to provide our clients the same level of services during both the Islamic Games and F1 to be hosted in Azerbaijan this year.
I would like to note about the rapid growth of global travel agencies’ interest in Azerbaijan, especially from Europe. All of it indicates that Azerbaijan’s tourism sector development is on a right track.
