“There was an opportunity for us to bid for the next Olympic Games. But we decided not to do it because the European Games were held almost at the level of Summer Olympic Games.” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev told.

The head of state noted that next year Azerbaijan will host the Islamic Solidarity Games and Formula One, which he said was a big success that attracted a lot of attention.

“It has an audience of 500 million people, and may be one can draw a parallel with the Olympic Games. You have Olympic Games for two or three weeks. Then it finishes. But Formula One you have every year, and it continues. After Formula One and European Games we see an increase in the number of tourists coming to Azerbaijan. This was especially because Formula One was a city circuit. So people did not only see the race, but also the city. They wanted to see, to explore new destinations,” he said.