Baku, Azerbaijan, June 1
By Azad Hasanli - Trend:
Azerbaijan Tourism Association (AzTA) proposes to exempt MICE tourism from value added tax, Chairman of the Association Nahid Bagirov told Trend.
MICE tourism is the area of business tourism industry related to the organization and holding of various corporate events, motivational tours, team building, trainings, exhibitions, congresses and other similar events.
Azerbaijan, like other countries, participates in tenders for various business events. Bagirov believes that VAT exemption would help the country to improve its competitiveness in this market.
"This practice exists in a number of other countries. VAT exemption is very important from the point of view of increasing Azerbaijan's competitiveness in the MICE-tourism market. The services [such as excursions and hotel accommodation] included in the bid package are subject to VAT, which affects the final cost of organizing the event in our country. Therefore, we want to meet with representatives of the Ministry of Taxes and discuss the possibility of introducing tax incentives for the MICE-tourism industry," Bagirov said.
He noted that in general, MICE-tourism in Azerbaijan is developing quite actively. Indian companies are particularly interested in conducting business events in the country. There is also a high demand for the Azerbaijani destination in the CIS countries, in particular, Ukraine and Russia.
"The government provides great support to the tourism sector and creates good conditions for private companies. Due to this, we can say that MICE-tourism in Azerbaijan almost does not face problems. Some problems still remain, but they are also quite solvable," the AzTA chairman added.
Among these problems, Bagirov noted the lack of rooms in hotels.
"MICE-tourism provides that the country will be visited by dozens or even hundreds of delegates. Participants of one event usually prefer to stay in one hotel, but it is not always possible to find 100 rooms in one hotel," he said.
Bagirov stressed that in general, there are no global problems for the development of MICE tourism in Azerbaijan.
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