Health Update: Global wellness boom leaves Azerbaijan’s spa wealth untapped – What Experts Say

Azerbaijan boasts a wealth of natural therapeutic resources,
including crude oil baths in Naftalan and 300 mineral springs in
Lachin. However, the country is largely unnoticed in the global
health tourism market, which is valued at hundreds of billions of
dollars. Experts warn that the opportunity to capitalize on this
market is closing rapidly.

Somewhere in the spa towns of Türkiye, a Russian retiree is
soaking in a mineral pool. In Budapest, a German tourist browses
brochures for thermal cures. In Georgia, a diaspora family has
booked a sanatorium stay combining mountain air with cutting-edge
diagnostics. And in Azerbaijan, a country sitting on one of the
most extraordinary concentrations of natural healing resources on
earth, the phone is barely ringing.

This is the central paradox facing Azerbaijan’s health tourism
sector: enormous natural endowment, negligible international
profile. The country possesses Naftalan crude oil, unique in the
world for its therapeutic application in treating skin and joint
conditions; more than 900 mud volcanoes; hundreds of mineral
springs; salt caves; and climatic microzones spanning subtropical
lowlands and high alpine air. Yet most of this remains either
entirely unbranded, or known only to a dwindling clientele of
post-Soviet regulars.

Azerbaijan’s healing waters are world-class. So why does almost
nobody know about them?

“Azerbaijan has a vast array of natural healing resources, from
Naftalan oil to over 900 mud volcanoes – yet most of them are not
part of any national tourism product. We haven’t told our story
properly,” – says Ruslan Guliyev, Chairman, Azerbaijan Health and
Thermal Tourism Support Association.

The comparison that haunts Azerbaijani policymakers most is
Türkiye. A generation ago, Turkey’s health tourism sector was
similarly underdeveloped. Today, it is a global juggernaut. In
2023, the country recorded revenues of $3.1 billion from health
tourism, welcoming approximately 1.65 million patients. The
government has set a target of $20 billion by 2028, a figure that
would place it among the world’s leading medical destinations.

What Türkiye did was not miraculous, perhaps. JCI-accredited
hospitals, state incentives, a coordinated national brand, and a
relentless digital presence combined to make health tourism not a
side note but a pillar of national economic strategy. Hair
transplants, cosmetic surgery and dental tourism became
internationally synonymous with Turkish expertise. The lesson for
Baku is not that Azerbaijan must copy Ankara, but that targeted
investment and narrative clarity can transform niche resources into
substantial economic contributors.

The most consequential new chapter in Azerbaijan’s health
tourism story may be unfolding in its recently liberated
territories. The Garabagh and East Zangezur economic regions,
historically famed for natural beauty and resource richness, are
now the focus of intensive reconstruction. And beneath that
reconstruction lies an extraordinary therapeutic foundation.

The mineral springs of Istisu in Kalbajar, Gotursu in Zangilan,
and more than 300 further sources identified across Lachin
represent a concentration of balneological wealth that few
countries can match. New international airports in Fuzuli, Zangilan
and Lachin, alongside the already-operational Khojaly airport, are
dramatically cutting travel times. The infrastructure of access, in
other words, is being built. The question is whether the tourism
product will follow.

“The area has the required traits. All it needs is a bold and
calculated endeavour to place health tourism as a core element of
sustainable economic growth,” according to the DTA Report, State
Tourism Agency of Azerbaijan, 2022.

There is also a fiscal dimension. Recent amendments to
Azerbaijan’s Tax Code now entitle foreign nationals and stateless
individuals to a full VAT refund on non-cash medical payments, a
meaningful competitive edge over neighbouring markets. Combined
with the country’s comparatively lower price base, this creates
genuine value-for-money potential for international patients, if
only they can be made aware of it.

What’s holding Azerbaijan back

The most structurally damaging legacy, he argues, was the
repurposing of health facilities in the 1990s to house internally
displaced persons, an entirely understandable humanitarian
necessity that nonetheless severed the link between healthcare
infrastructure and tourism market development for three decades.
Rebuilding that ecosystem requires not just bricks and pipes but
institutional memory and market positioning that takes years to
establish.

The sector’s other deficiencies are catalogued in the sole
comprehensive government-commissioned report available on the
subject, published in 2022:

• Poor global recognition of Azerbaijan as a health tourism
  destination
• Fragmented infrastructure at rural therapy centres and spa
  facilities
• Limited digital branding and international marketing
  presence
• No integration with global medical tourism aggregator
  platforms
• Absence of international accreditation (such as JCI) at major
  clinics
• No unified pricing transparency or online booking
  infrastructure
• Lack of a quality standards framework for international medical
  tourists

The generational shift in consumer expectations compounds these
structural problems. Younger domestic and international tourists
are no longer satisfied with Soviet-style sanatorium programmes.
They seek hybrid experiences combining wellness, diagnostics,
recreation, and flexibility. Guliyev advocates for what he calls a
“7-dən 77-yə”, from 7 to 77, model of multigenerational medical
clusters, integrating services for every age group under one roof.
No such facility currently exists in Azerbaijan.

What would it actually take to transform Azerbaijan’s
health tourism sector?

Specialists and policy analysts converge on five priorities.
First, the creation of a Unified Medical Tourism Council under the
joint auspices of the Ministry of Health and the Tourism Board, a
body with genuine coordination power across the currently
fragmented ministerial landscape. Second, a serious push for JCI
accreditation at major clinics, backed by state incentives to
defray the cost of meeting international standards.

Third, an integrated digital platform, encompassing web and
mobile, providing international patients with searchable
information on procedures, clinic ratings, language support and
visa facilitation. Fourth, the embedding of medical tourism into
national brand campaigns such as “Experience Azerbaijan,” including
partnerships with influencers and agencies in key source markets:
Russia, Iran, Georgia and, crucially, the Azerbaijani diaspora
communities across Central Asia and Eastern Europe. And fifth, the
revival and globalisation of Naftalan, Qalaaltı and Duzdağ as
internationally recognised balneological destinations, developed
sustainably and with cultural integrity intact.

The economics of health tourism make this investment attractive
beyond the obvious revenue headline. Health tourists stay longer
than leisure visitors, between 12 and 28 days on average,
typically, accompanied by family members, generating substantially
higher per-capita spending. And critically, health tourism is
non-seasonal. It offers the revenue stability that sun-and-beach
tourism, or even cultural tourism, cannot guarantee.

“Without definite action, Azerbaijan becomes a spectator in a
sector where it boasts geographic, cultural, and medical advantages
compared to most regional competitors,” according to the Research
on Azerbaijan’s health tourism policy gap, 2025.

The diagnosis, then, is clear. Azerbaijan is not short of what
health tourists are looking for. It is short of the institutional
architecture, the international narrative, and the political will
to bring those two realities together. In a region where Türkiye,
Georgia, and even Jordan are actively competing for the same
patients, the cost of continued inaction rises every year. The
healing waters are there. The question is simply whether anyone
will build the path to reach them.