Sahib Hasanov

the Assistant of the Chairman of Council
for Foreign Tourism at the Cabinet of Ministers
of Azerbaijan Republic. The General Director of "Azaltour"

This information represents an analyze of the data of frontier statistics for 1994-1998.
Till 1992 data on frontier statistics for the arrival of foreign citizens and the departure of our citizens was registered in the USSR, in 1992, after the collapse of the USSR, frontier registration was carried out for the CIS, and from 1994 -by the Azerbaijan Republic.

Information about the arrival in the Azerbaijan Republic from former republics of the USSR and departure of the Azerbaijan citizens in the former republics of the USSR represent general data on airport, sea and ground departure \ arrival points, where frontier control of passengers, using planes, steamships and cars is organized and carried out.

At the same time, last years obvious growth in tourist activity is observed in our Republic: a number of tourist firms have sprung up, the geography of arrival and departure tourism has expanded, new partner relations with different countries, and spontaneous formation of new tourist markets. Tourist turnover, determined as a total number of trips of foreign citizens to our country and Azerbaijan citizens traveling abroad, can be considered as an index of tourist activity.

Share of arrival of foreign tourists, who visited Azerbaijan and share of departure of Azeri tourists abroad in tourist turnover for 1994-1998

Table-1

As it is seen from the Table-1 , the % share of arrival of foreign tourists in Azerbaijan each year has dropped, and the share of departure, conversely has grown.
Average annual share of arrivals in tourist turnover for 5 years was 29.4%, and of the total the average annual share of departures -70.6%

Further analysis shows that:
1. Share of departure is less than 40% in tourist turnover of the following countries: Estonia- 10.2%, France -21.4%, Spain -30.6%, Hungary -34.7%, Turkey- 35.9%.
2. From 40% to 50%: Austria -43.1 %, Israel -47.0%, the USA -49.8%.
3. More than 50%: Canada -57.7%, Poland -64.9%, Azerbaijan -70.6%, Russia -
73.7%, Romania -78.7%, Japan -85.9%

Structure of arrival flow by purposes of trips for 1994-1998
Table-2

Structure of arrival flow is given without taking into account transit trips.
Table-2 shows that first place is taken by business trips -36.7%, second -tourist trips -38.3% and,
finally, private trips -25.0%.

Structure of departure flow by purposes of trips for 1994-1998
Table-3

The structure of departure flow of Azerbaijan Republic citizens abroad by purposes of the trips is given
without taking into account transit trips.
The other tendency observed in this table: private trips exceed all other trips.
Tourism 35.2%, business trips -10.1 %, and private ones -54.7%
In the last 2.5 years rapid growth of private trips has taken place.

Structure of foreign citizens arrivals in the Azerbaijan Republic for 1994-1998.
Tourist trips.
Table-4

Table-4 shows, that the share of tourist trips to the Azerbaijan Republic from the countries of Asia and Middle East is considerable. At the same time, there is a
tendency of growth of trips in the Azerbaijan Republic from Europe, and a decrease over the last two years from the countries of Asia and Middle East.

Structure of departure of citizens from the Azerbaijan Republic abroad for tourist purposes for 1994-1998
Table-5

In second place -European countries, although their share is not very stable, there is an increase of departure flow from Azerbaijan, especially, growth of tourist trips to Poland and Turkey.
Let us now consider the dynamics of departure of Azerbaijan citizens by regions in tourist turnover for the last 2.5 years. Previously such statistics were not available.

Europe
Dynamics of share of Azerbaijan citizens departing for European countries in tourist turnover for 1994-1998

First of all, the increase of arrivals from European countries to Azerbaijan should be noted. On the other hand, departure of Azerbaijan citizens to European countries for the same period also grew.
Let us now consider the dynamics of Azeri tourists' departure in each country of Europe for 1996-1998. Again such statistics have not been available in previous years.

Table-7

In European region dominant position in departure flow was Turkey. Although in 1997 by comparison with 1996 departure flow in Turkey decreased by 29.5%. However, it keeps its leadership position in the European region. In 1997 a new tourist market - Poland- appeared I it's share 16.8% of the total in 1997.
In the first half of 1998 Turkey kept its status -43.9%, in second place -Poland (32.0%), the share of the rest European countries -24.1%

Asia and Middle East

Dynamics of share of Azerbaijan citizens departure for Asia and Middle East in
tourist turnover for 1994-1998

Table-8

In tourist turnover the share of Azerbaijan citizens departing, for the Asian-Middle
Eastern region during the last 2 years was 84.8%, 85.9%, and in 1998- 84.5%, this is
a considerable increase.
As mentioned above, the share of Azerbaijan citizens departing for the countries of
Asia and the Middle East is the major market destination.

Let us now consider the dynamics of Azerbaijan tourists departing for the countries of this region. Unfortunately, because of absence of statistics for 1994/1995, we can submit only data for 1996-1998.

Table-9

Let us now consider the dynamics of the visits of foreign tourists from the countries of
Asia and Middle East to Azerbaijan for 1994-1998.

As is seen from table-10 the main tourist in flow to Azerbaijan of the Asian-Middle Eastern region is Iran, the share of which in tourist turnover of this region for 1994-1998 is 98.1%. The share of the rest countries -1.9%.

The dynamics of arrival of foreign tourists from the European countries to Azerbaijan for 1994-1998 is as follows.

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