Azerbaijan’s tourism industry has expanded considerably over the past decade, but the country still faces the challenge of turning its diverse natural and cultural assets into sustainable sources of visitor spending. Among the less conventional opportunities is mud volcano tourism, an area where Azerbaijan possesses an unusually large natural advantage but where the economic potential remains only partly developed. More than 2,000 mud volcanoes are known worldwide, and more than 350 of them are located in eastern Azerbaijan and the Caspian Sea basin.
The concentration is particularly notable around the Absheron Peninsula, Baku, Gobustan, Shamakhi and southeastern Shirvan. This makes mud volcanoes one of Azerbaijan’s most distinctive geological tourism assets. The opening of the Mud Volcanoes Tourism Complex on June 13, 2024, in the Absheron district near Pirakashkul marked an attempt to turn that natural attraction into a more structured tourism product.
President Ilham Aliyev attended the opening of the complex, which covers 12 hectares. The facility includes a tourism information center, exhibition spaces devoted to minerals and mud volcanoes, workshops and a natural history exhibition, as well as observation areas and a restaurant. The complex also created more than 60 jobs for residents of nearby areas.
The more important question now is whether mud volcanoes can become a meaningful part of Azerbaijan’s broader tourism economy. The scale of that economy provides some context. Azerbaijan received 2.57 million foreign visitors in 2025.
However, in January-August 2026, the country received 1.586 million foreigners and stateless persons from 191 countries, down 7.8% from the same period of 2025. At the same time, arrivals from EU countries increased by 6.6% to 77,800, while arrivals from CIS countries rose by 3.1% to 619,500. These figures show both the size and volatility of Azerbaijan’s tourism market.
The country has a substantial international visitor base, but visitor numbers alone do not determine the economic value of tourism. Spending, length of stay and the geographical distribution of that spending are equally important. The accommodation sector illustrates the point.
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