Florian Sengstschmid

CEO, Azerbaijan Tourism Board

Florian Sengstschmid holds a degree in tourism and sociology from Vienna University and has worked across almost every field within the tourism sector over the past 30 years. In 1993, he began his professional career in the private sector.

In 1999, he joined the Austrian National Tourist Board as Regional Director for Russia and the CIS countries. Whilst in Moscow, he also served as Commercial Attaché at the Austrian Embassy.

In 2003, he returned to Vienna, joining the headquarters of the Austrian National Tourist Board to oversee the international markets and partner management system.

In 2006, he founded his own consultancy, providing tourism promotion and destination management to public bodies, including several government institutions, the European Union, and the United Nations.

He supported a wide range of countries - Estonia, Greece, Vietnam, Bhutan, Hungary, Lithuania, and Georgia, among others. This led him to oversee an EU Twinning project between Austria and Azerbaijan to strengthen the latter’s tourism industry. Following the conclusion of that project, he established the Azerbaijan Convention Bureau under the former Ministry of Culture & Tourism.

After serving as the CEO of Pasha Travel, he was appointed as the CEO of the Azerbaijan Tourism Board in April 2018.