Speaking on the sidelines of the PATA Annual Summit 2025, Florian Sengstschid, CEO, Azerbaijan Tourism Board shared that the event provided a great opportunity to reconnect with people from the APAC region. A region that is growing and the travel demand from the region to Azerbaijan is on the rise.
Indian and Chinese travellers fuel growth
Elaborating on how tourism had done in the first half of 2025 for Azerbaijan, he said: “From Asia pacific we have a good growth rate, in the first quarter of 2025 vis-à-vis 2024 we have seen a growth of 25 per cent. We have seen 125,000 visitors this year compared to 98,000 travellers in the same period last year that is 2024. This is a sign that demand is increasing, especially looking at the Indian and Chinese travellers. In the numbers of travellers from India we had a growth rate of 110 per cent. From China it stands at around 70%. This is due to greater connectivity and our efforts.”
New products for solo travellers
Adding on about the Indian market he said: “We have been continuously investing into the Indian market since 2018 our establishment, and we have really managed not only to reach out geographically to tier-one cities across India, but also to tier- two, tier- three cities. We have been bringing partners across the country with different experiences, and really worked on the verticals of what Azerbaijan has to offer, on culture, city tourism, on health and wellness, as well as on business events, especially looking at corporates and MICE and also the film industry.”
He added, “And now it's time to introduce new products, especially for solo women travellers, hiking, a lot of nature, some luxury destinations within Azerbaijan. So these are the next steps for 2025”
“360 degrees approach”
Elaborating on their marketing campaign to promote the country he said: “In general in the Asian markets, we use a 360 degrees approach. We work with travel trade, media partners, plus also direct communications with the travellers, OTAs consolidators and in in some markets, also, we have our own representation office.”
Sharing his forecast on the rest of 2025 he said: “2025 looks great. This is also what our partners confirm. Our key markets are in the Middle East, and are in Asia and European markets. We continue to invest a lot into the Asian markets. We will be attending ITB Asia, Singapore as well as other trade shows. We are also deep diving into new markets, Malaysia, Indonesia, where we see a future potential for Azerbaijan”.
