Cyprus
The buildings in the center of Cyprus’s capital city Nicosia that have burnt down and are located in the buffer zone (neutral zone) concern tourists that come to that country and they listen very carefully to stories related to that, whereas tourists coming to our country, people responsible for tourism in our country cannot explain, for example, why the half-burnt ruins of the former building of the Ministry of Justice in the vicinity of Armenia Marriott hotel are not yet dismantled.
Yerevan
Today Aravot.am inquired from Ara Petrosyan, the first deputy minister of economy, during a press conference in the press hall of the Ministry of Economy whether he had ever taken the initiative to have at least buildings in the center of the capital that are unpleasant to our citizens and tourists dismantled. “Yes, we applied to the city hall,” stated Mr. Petrosyan. In response to our question whether he could point out a building, Ara Petrosyan said, “All buildings that are unpleasant to tourists.” We inquired to which offer the deputy minister had gotten a response. “For example, facades of the buildings in Yerevan have been painted on our proposal,” assured Ara Petrosyan.
Mr. Petrosyan thinks that there is still work to do in tourism, “We must improve the quality and lower the prices.” However, he is an absolute optimist and thinks that if it continues at this rate, the number of tourists coming to our country will cross the margin of one million. According to his data, 757 935 tourists visited Armenia last year. In response to a question whether that number included also our compatriots that left to work abroad and temporarily came back home, whether they were also perceived tourists, the deputy minister said, “According to the definition of the World Tourism Organization, if a person’s living environment is in a place, where he works and receives revenue and if he changes that place for another place and he has some economic influence on that place, i.e. he spends the money he has earned in his living environment in the place of arrival and leaves the place of arrival at a fixed time, he doesn’t do paid work in the place of arrival, then he is a tourist.”
In response to a question of Aravot.am whether one could suppose that they counted a few hundred migrants as tourists, since the “definition of tourist” absolutely corresponded to our migrants that had left to work abroad, Ara Petrosyan said, “Maybe the definition corresponds, but it is not such a big number. It may range from 7% to 8%.”
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So making a simple count, it turns out that 6 thousand 634 people out of 757 935 tourists were not really “tourists,” they were just migrant workers. Whereas we found out that according to the data of the Migration Agency of the Republic of Armenia, 90% of people who went to the Russian Federation and then returned are not tourists, but migrant workers. As we know the main country of immigration from our country is Russia.
Talking about the high prices of touristic packages, Mr. Petrosyan said that he had been to hotels of Armenia one by one and assured that there were inns and hotels in Jermuk, Dilijan and Sevan basin, the accommodation prices of which start from 5 thousand AMD a day.
Lusine BUDAGHYAN
