A large delegation of senior tourism officials is currently in Israel for B2B meetings with Israeli tourists. The delegation is headed by representatives of the Azeri Ministry of Tourism, and most of its members are mainly hoteliers, representatives of museums and attractions, and the director of the Jewish Museum.
The delegation of tourists from Azerbaijan who arrived last night in Tel Aviv
Last night, an Experience Azerbaijan meeting was held at the Hilton Hotel in Tel Aviv, designed to increase awareness of Azerbaijan as a tourist destination for the Israeli market as well.
The first of the speakers was Azerbaijan’s new ambassador to Israel, Mukhtar Mammadov, who greeted those present and said that he had recently joined the political visits of the country’s President Yitzhak Herzog and Foreign Minister Eli Cohen who arrived for work meetings in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. The ambassador revealed that the field of tourism was one of the important topics that came up in all the talks, in addition to security and economic issues. According to him, the four flights on which he flew from and to Israel were full of passengers, and from that he learned about the success of tourism. “Tourism will bring the two countries closer together,” said Ambassador Mukhtar. “Every tourist who returns to his country after seeing the advantages of Azerbaijan, becomes a kind of ambassador of our information. The Israeli tourists, whose number is increasing, also return loaded with good stories to share with their relatives”
The director of the Azerbaijan Tourism Bureau, Fuad Naghiyev, declared: “Israel is an important key country in Azerbaijan in the fields of economy and tourism. We continue to cultivate the strong business ties that symbolize the deepening friendship between our two nations. The unwavering commitment Our challenge lies in strengthening tourism and exploring more possibilities for cooperation. Our goal is to increase tourism and cultural exchanges, and to promote the tourism potential of Azerbaijan and Israel.” He ended his greeting by inviting those present to come to Azerbaijan to experience for themselves the extent of the warm hospitality.
The most distinguished guest in the delegation was the Deputy Director of the Ministry of Tourism of Azerbaijan, Bahruz Asgarov. He bothered to come to Israel himself for the occasion. He happily presented statistics according to which tourism from Israel to his country is recovering from the Corona crisis at a faster rate than from other countries. Before the Corona More than 47,000 tourists from Israel arrived in 2019. In the first quarter of 2023, 8,611 Israeli travelers landed in Baku, which reflects an almost identical movement to the corresponding period before the corona virus.
He noted that this is the first tourism workshop held by Azerbaijan in Israel, and that his office opened a tourist office in Tel Aviv which was the first outside of Baku (in the meantime other countries have opened). He explained that these facts illustrate the importance of the Israelis in his eyes and in the eyes of the Azerbaijani government. He also mentioned Jewish heritage sites in northern Azerbaijan that his office is investing in developing for Jewish tourists. There is a town and villages there whose inhabitants are only Jews, with synagogues, yeshivas, and Jewish welfare institutions. The hill town of Guba and the red city of Qırmızı Qəsəbə intrigue every Jewish tourist.
The houses of the Red City (above), and the Great Synagogue of Cuba (below)
Later he also said that Azerbaijan has a lot more to offer to any type of tourist interested in any field. Azerbaijan has different types of landscapes and tourist attractions for sports and extreme enthusiasts as well. Lovers of history and architecture will delight in the ancient and modern mosques and palaces, there are also special tours for lovers of culinary, skiing, mountain scenery, wine vineyards and wineries, and more. He ended his speech by inviting the audience to come and experience for themselves what Azerbaijan has to offer.
He was followed by his assistant, Fidan Akhundzade, who manages from Turkey the regional tourism from Israel and the countries of the former Soviet Union. She presented a charming presentation of alluring landscapes and tourist sites all over Azerbaijan, with an emphasis on Baku and its ancient and beautiful palaces. Review Also the modern center of Heber Alive with its museums, and the flame buildings that adorn the city’s skyline. She described other tourist attractions such as horse riding. In Azerbaijan, they have greatly developed healing tourism, and have built pools on hot mineral springs and salt caves. She presented also the wineries and the ski resorts. Fidan also presented the business infrastructure for conferences and exhibitions, and told about modern congress centers and 50 modern hotels throughout the country. According to her, there are also luxury hotels operating in Azerbaijan as part of 14 international chains. Towards the end of the presentation she briefly and in passing also mentioned the Jewish attractions of the Red City.
I understood that this presentation was prepared for a target audience of tourists from all over the world, or rather to attract Israeli travelers. Because if they had directed it to Israelis, they should have highlighted the sites of Jewish heritage near the beginning of the presentation, and devoted more than one slide and only one sentence to it.
The last speaker was the representative of the national airline of Azerbaijan, (AZAL = Azerbaijan Air Lines), Mr. Chingiz Mursalov presented the airline as the most modern. The company has a fleet of 29 aircraft that fly to a wide variety of destinations in Europe and Asia. Israel is one of AZAL’s short destinations, the flight from Tbilisi to Baku lasts only 3 hours and five minutes, and the return flight lasts only about three and a half hours. Currently they operate 5 weekly flights, but later this summer they will switch to a daily flight. We should know that Israir Airlines also operates 3 Weekly flights to Baku on Monday Wednesday and Friday Mr. Chingiz proudly presented international awards from SKYTRAX won by AZAL airline.
After the speeches, all the Azeri guests were invited for a group photo on the stage, and their names were called one by one. We were surprised to discover among them the director of the Jewish Museum at Gova, Igor Shaolov. We didn’t understand why they didn’t let him speak and present his museum, which should be of interest to Israeli travelers. We were also surprised that the representative of Azerbaijan’s tourism bureau in Israel, Jamila Talibzada, who produced the meeting and workshop, was not invited to speak in front of the microphone. In the short time that Jamila is in Israel, she has managed to like everything, and is even engaged in learning Hebrew. It has an important part in the success of Israeli tourism to Baku in the last year.
From left to right: Bharoz Azgarov, Jamila Talibzadeh, Fouad Najeev, and Ambassador Mukhtar Mamedov (photo by Rafi Delouya)
From there we moved to an adjacent hall for personal networking meetings between hoteliers and ground service providers in Azerbaijan and between Israeli tourism wholesalers. It is hoped that these meetings will also result in deals and trips. An exhibition of photographs of Azerbaijan through the lenses of Israeli photographers was displayed on one of the walls of the workshop.
