On 27 September 2019, the Azerbaijan Hotel Association organised a panel discussion on “Destination Marketing Trends, Challenges and Insights” for its member hotels with the purpose of connecting the hoteliers with ATB experts to raise awareness of the current position of the country's promotional image. Marketing and international markets experts from the Azerbaijan Tourism Board suggested that the marketing campaigns of hotels integrate destination marketing products by giving examples of destination products ready to promote, which can be found on the azerbaijan.wine and azerbaijan.travel websites. Hoteliers have also been advised to register in OTA[1] ’s for focus markets and create a functional website with possibilities to book packages online. With the important MoU signed with Ctrip and Qyer, now it is even easier for hotels to reach Chinese market; as well as the GCC market via Al Mosafar: local hotels now can register their properties on the respective websites to boost their sales.
Additionally, hotels were encouraged to start using guest comment websites such as TripAdvisor which will also bring recognition on digital platforms. As an example of a best practice in marketing, Ulviyya Talishinskaya, AHA EXCOM Member as well as Director of Marketing at Four Seasons Baku Hotel, introduced a successful project related to packaging the hotel with the destination experience which boosts sales and increases the hotel’s performance index.