Mekhak-ApresyanMekhak Apresyan, Head of the Department of Tourism, Ministry of Economy of Armenia, cannot yet report the exact number of tourists that visited Armenia this summer.

However, his personal monitoring suggests a dynamic increase.

“I can say it is promising. Each year shows a dynamic increase both in domestic, inbound and outbound tourism. It is realistic for us to ensure a 10% increase in inbound tourism, a 7% to 10% increase in domestic tourism and an increase of about 10% in outbound tourism,” Mr Apresyan told Tert.am.

He does not think that, in contrast to the neighboring states, Armenia’s tourist industry shows a low- rate increase. Armenia is “too young” in terms of tourism development as it was not until 1996 that tourism development was on the agenda as Armenia was unable to host tourists before for well-known reasons.

“It was not until 1996-1997 that we started thinking of tourism. In 1997, Armenia joined the World Tourism Organization and drew up a relevant agenda. In 2000 we started keeping statistics on tourism – 45,000 tourists visited Armenia during that year,” Mr Apresyan said.

“A more than 18-fold increase in just 12 years. In 2000, we had only three or four hotels that could receive tourists, with all of them located in Yerevan. Now we have 250 to 300 hotels, besides holiday centers, with 60 percent of them located in Armenia’s regions. This is real progress. Tourist industry in Armenia’s individual communities, new jobs,” he said.

The right tourism promotion policy is the result of coordinated efforts by all the interested sides.

With respect to the tourist industry’s problems, Mr Apresyan said:

“Although we have a more or less developed infrastructure and other achievements, we need further infrastructure development. Of course, we have made progress in the recent ten years. On the other hand, we cannot say that we have perfect roads, especially country roads,” he said.

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