Azerbaijan has been consistently strengthening its position in the global travel market, as evidenced by the recent awarding of the prestigious “Ideal Global Partner of the Year” award by the Azerbaijan Tourism Bureau (ATB) at the Trip.com Group conference held in Shanghai. ATB was selected out of more than one hundred partners from Europe and the Middle East for its successful and fruitful cooperation with major online travel platform Trip.com Group, which started back in 2019, as well as for implementing effective marketing initiatives.
This strategic partnership was further strengthened by the signing of a trilateral memorandum of understanding between ATB, Trip.com Group and Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL), and the parties are now actively working on the launch of a new joint digital campaign tailored to seasonal tourist flows and key events planned in Azerbaijan, which is also supported by the recent abolition of visas between Azerbaijan and China.
An important step to increase the inflow of tourists from China was the signing of an agreement in April this year on the mutual abolition of visa regime for holders of ordinary general civil passports, which opens new wide opportunities for tourist exchange between the two countries. Azerbaijan also actively promotes its rich tourism potential by participating in major international exhibitions such as ITB China 2025, where its national stand showcases 12 key tourism organizations of the country, including AZAL and the popular Shahdag Tourism Center.
As part of such presentations, Azerbaijan introduces its unique offerings to a global audience, including ancient winemaking traditions with the organization of tastings in cooperation with the “House of Azerbaijani Wine”, new promising tourist routes in Karabakh and East Zangezur, and also presents information materials dedicated to, for example, the “Year of Constitution and Sovereignty”.
While Russia has seen a marked increase in the popularity of domestic destinations, such as rural tourism in the North Caucasus, and analyzes the various factors that influence citizens' travel habits, such as the reasons why not all families travel with children, neighboring countries are also actively demonstrating impressive success in developing their tourism industry and promoting it on the world stage.