Ilham Aliyev: ASAN Viza was a necessity

"Because we are trying to attract more tourists to Azerbaijan, for them to both get familiarized with the country and have right information about it. At the same time this is a huge contribution to the country’s economy,” said the president.

Both hotels and public places are working, and this means currency is coming to the country, he noted.

The president hailed the factors characterizing the new service and its advantages.

The head of state underlined that getting a visa to visit Azerbaijan was once a huge problem.

"We could not be satisfied with the situation regarding visas. There were not only lots of irregularities, but also groundless demands were put forward,” he added. "In general, in order to visit Azerbaijan people needed to stand in queues for months, they had to appeal to embassies and consulates of our country in other cities and it was not yet clear whether they would be given visas or not.”

Therefore, ASAN Viza was created in order to address this issue once and for all, and now any citizen can visit Azerbaijan within three days, said President Aliyev.

He noted that the number of tourists visiting Azerbaijan increased by about 10 percent this year.

"The number of visitors from some countries increased by 30-40 times. In 2017, this process will go even more rapidly,” added the president.