A seventh five-star hotel has been opened in Baku in less than a year, giving Baku’s bid for the 2020 Summer Games a boost.
The new Marriott Absheron Hotel was inaugurated by the country’s president Ilham Aliyev, and first lady Mehriban Aliyeva. Two more luxury hotels are due to open in Baku later this year.
President Aliyev said at the inauguration, “the opening of the Marriott Absheron is a sign of the fast developing tourism sector of Azerbaijan, as well as the favourable investment climate established for local and international businesses in the country. Azerbaijan is certainly the political and economic centre of the region. With more and more visitors each year, our country is becoming one of the major tourism destinations”.
Konul Nuruallayeva, CEO of Baku 2020 said, “Baku is one of the world’s best-kept secrets. Inbound tourism to Azerbaijan has almost doubled over the past five years and visitors here are always taken by surprise by our city’s beauty”.
Our 2020 Olympic Bid is a part of the wider process of transforming Baku into a world-class destination, with first-class business, technology and sports facilities, as well as hotels, museums and art collections, universities and all the infrastructure that comes with them.
“We have been very clear when developing our 2020 Games plan that it should fit our city’s long-term objectives – not that we change our city to adjust to our Olympic bid plans. We believe that this subtle, but profound key difference can be a model for other cities going forward. We aim to illustrate that hosting the Olympic Games is a prudent investment if planned wisely”.
She added, “by 2020, Baku will have 81,800 rooms within 50 km. of where we plan to site our Olympic Village – and 50 per cent of these rooms will be within 10 km., ensuring that our accommodation exceeds all the IOC requirements”.
Nurullayeva said the majority of Baku’s hotels are within 25 minutes of the city’s 2020 Games venues.
