BAKU, NOV 15: The State Tourism Agency (STA) has announced the number of tourists, who will visit the liberated territories of Azerbaijan in the next 4 years, Kanan Gasimov, Chief of Staff of the State Tourism Agency, said this at the 25th International Business Forum (IBF) in Baku.

K. Gasimov noted that by 2025 about 1 million people, including local and foreign tourists, will visit the liberated territories.

In his opinion, 2016 is considered an important turning point in the development of tourism.

“The share of tourism in the economy is 2.4%, and the share in employment is 1.7%. The growth rate of tourism in our country was 12.5%. The number of tourists, who visited the country in 2019, amounted to 3.2 million people. The number of domestic tourists reached 4.3 million. Also, the share of tourism in GDP is AZN1.9 billion. We expect these indicators to grow, and we expect to increase the number of foreign tourists coming to the country, up to 4 million people, local tourists – up to 5 million people, and the sector’s share in GDP – up to 4 billion manats.”