Tourism in Azerbaijan
The historical, cultural and natural heritage of Azerbaijan attracts visitors from all over the world. Untouched nature, mineral springs, the world's only oil field treatment - naphthalene, a unique ancient architecture, unique culture, cuisine, and more contribute to the formation in Azerbaijan of all types of tourism: business, sport, medical, cognitive, hunting, exotic, beach and even gastronomic. Azerbaijan is a territory of 9 out of 11 of the world's climatic zones. The climate of the country enables to organize summer and winter holidays. Very common are ecological tours to Azerbaijan, which include visits to nature reservations, trekking and climbing routes. Midday sandy beaches offer opportunities for diving, and swimming season starts in Azerbaijan in May. Tourism sector in Azerbaijan is developing day by day, becoming one of the most important sectors of the economy.
According to the report prepared by the World Travel and Tourism Council, Azerbaijan is among top ten countries which saw the strongest growth in visitor exports in 2010–2016. Also, Azerbaijan placed at the first place (46.1%) among the fastest developing travel and tourism economies and buoyed by strong in bound international visitor spending last year.
Tourist visas can be obtained from Azerbaijani embassies around the world or through electronic visa online without going to any embassy.
In January 2017 Azerbaijan introduced a new electronic visa that enables a single-entry visit up to 30 days. The system is called ASAN Visa and tourists from 93 countries can get an electronic visa by applying to the official website.
It was not until the 2000s (decade) that the tourism industry began to recover, and the country has since experienced a high rate of growth in the number of tourist visits and overnight stays. In recent years, Azerbaijan has also become a more popular destination for religious, spa, and health care tourism.
The flow of tourists is increasing every year (according to official information in 2011 Azerbaijan was visited a record number of foreign nationals - more than 2.2 million), so in the capital and other tourist areas there is a growing number of hotels with the highest level of service. Today their number is more than 500.
Most visitors arriving to Azerbaijan in 2016 were from the following countries of nationality:
During the first six months in 2015, the highest numbers of foreign citizens who visited Azerbaijan came from Russia, Georgia, Turkey and Iran.
The Azeri city of Baku has numerous historical and architectural monuments dating to various historical epochs.
The Walled City of Baku is the ancient historical core of Baku. In December 2000, the Old City of Baku, including the Palace of the Shirvanshahs and Maiden Tower, became the first location in Azerbaijan to be classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
...
Wikipedia