15:40 - 2.12.2025

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December 2, Fineko/abc.az. It is necessary to study the decrease in the tourist flow to Azerbaijan.

ABC.AZ informs that MP Gudrat Hasanguliyev made this statement at today's plenary session of the parliament during the second reading discussion of the Draft Law on the State Budget for 2026.

"Next year, the State Budget of Azerbaijan will allocate 239 million manats for international events. This is 10 million manats more than the funds allocated for science. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of many of these international measures is very low. The government should be concerned about the decrease in the number of tourists compared to last year. If 2.171 million tourists visited our country in 10 months of this year (1.7% less than a year ago), then 4.307 million visited Georgia, which was much smaller (2-fold more). The reasons for this should be investigated," he said.

"Azerbaijan should first of all work to abolish the visa regime for citizens of the U.S., European countries and Iran. At the same time, conduct a study on why tourists refuse to come to Azerbaijan. This is also due to the fact that our services are expensive. Prices for air tickets and catering services are very high. There are no cheap hotels in Azerbaijan. It also directly affects the number of tourists. I don't think we should support local hotels with funds allocated from the budget - by hosting international events."