Florian Sengstschmid, CEO of Azerbaijan Tourism Board declares, that the country still has "traffic" despite the closure of land borders for four years. Sengstschmid stated this in an interview with the BMG Azerbaijan Bureau.
"In general, we see that there is still traffic, especially from long-term travelers, the same trend is noted from Azerbaijan to Georgia. Foreigners are allowed to cross the border. We see actually this is working very well. So the northwestern region, when we look at Sheki, Zagatala, Gah, I still don't see a big drop of numbers because of increased number of local travelers. and also foreigners who cross basically from Azerbaijan towards Georgia", - Florian Sengstschmid said.
According to the official data of the Azerbaijan Tourism Board, the number of tourists from Georgia to Azerbaijan was down by 85% in January-October 2024 compared to pre-pandemic period. It is 9% higher than the figures for 2023. In particular, in the first ten months of 2024, 90,894 arrivals from Georgia were recorded in Azerbaijan, while in the corresponding period in 2019, there were 593,476 arrivals. In 2023, the number stood at 83,602 arrivals in the same period.
As for the general statistics, in the first ten months of the current year, 2,209,720 visits from abroad were recorded in the country, which was 28% higher than the same period in 2023, although it was 18% lower than the data for the first ten months of 2019.
Azerbaijan closed its land borders in spring 2020. The official reason was the Covid pandemic. According to the latest data, the special quarantine regime in the country has been extended until 06:00 on January 1, 2025. Entry into Azerbaijan is only possible by air.
