Just a few days ago, the author found himself discussing how to increase number of tourists in Azerbaijan with a few locals in an underground bar in Baku. The economy was in dire straits as the GDP dropped along with oil prices. The government's supposed diversification to non-oil sectors involved little beyond investing in infrastructure to increase exports of natural gas. Tourism, for a city as beautiful as Baku, deserves to be one of the main sources of income in a diversified economy.
While the Azeris thought about how to get tourists to show up, next door the Georgians do not seem to have much problems. Recently, Hollywood types have been jetsetting to the old streets of Tbilisi, making it a new go-to place about Western tourists. But even before Western tourists come, large groups of Iranians, Turks, and Russians have been filling the streets for decades, bringing in good deal of international atmosphere into a land steeped in local Christian culture.
Yet, perhaps because Georgians have been exposed to foreign tourist traffic so much more than Azeris, the way they handle foreigners show considerable difference with the Azeris. While the Azeris bend over backwards to ensure confused foreigners are assisted in anyway they can, Georgians are much more nonchalant, with a matter of fact attitude toward foreigners getting lost in the narrow alleyways of the city and picking apart the country's unique alphabet.
And unfortunately, that nonchalant attitude has sometimes translated into less than friendly gestures toward foreigners among Georgians. Taxi drivers, shop vendors, and even beggars casually ask foreigners for more money, with smiles that subtly say "you really are not short a couple of extra dollars, no?" It is not a smile to be taken with friendliness, but more often than not, a condescending attitude of "you should help us, who makes less money than you." Irritating as it is, refusal is the right thing to do.
At least in the author's experience, the same would not happen in Azerbaijan. Perhaps it is the strict government control that ensure people do not behave in deviant manner. Or maybe the country really is that starved for foreign tourists that the majority of people have come to realization that it is best to treat foreigners as possible to ensure they bring back more visitors. In tourist-filled, relatively democratic Georgia, the same concerns would not be as important.
However, it is important to note that the different ways Georgians and Azeris treat their own compatriots are not too different. In both countries, it is normal for people to casually speak to one another on the streets, to ask for lighter to smoke a cigarette, to ask for directions to an unfamiliar address, or even just to say hi. People in both countries do not ignore strangers seeking help, often going out of their ways to support. Thus, it could be argued that social norms in two countries are quite similar.
And the similarity makes sense given the two countries' common historical origins. Both suffered in the hands of empires from the east, north, and south over course of millennia, struggling to survive and preserve their own unique cultural identities. Their respective abilities to do so to a large extent undoubtedly would be a source of great pride for people in both countries. In the context of such cultural survival, the fact that one is Christian and the other is Muslim is not that big of a determining differentiator.
So really, at the end, it really might just be a foreign tourist thing. Georgians getting more accustomed to foreign tourists in their country has in some ways gave the local populace ability to distinguish how to treat locals and foreigners differently. Azeris, with less experience with foreigners at the street level, not yet acquired the capability. The evolution here is an assumption based on a gross generalization that certainly do not hold for many individuals in both countries, but the trend is still worthy of note.
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