According to the RA Government’s Tourism Development Strategy, the number of foreign tourists visiting Armenia is possible to increase up to 3 million by 2030, which, by the opinion of the experts is realistic, if you realize all the possibilities for tourism in our country. Although the historical and cultural monuments and places of sightseeing are at large located in the marzes and rural areas, anyway the role of agro tourism in the country is underestimated.
“We so far do not realize the possibilities of rural tourism and eco-tourism in our marzez, which our country has granted us naturally, which may result in solution of serious social problems by providing the rural population with non-agricultural revenues. This will enable the farmers to keep in the village, by providing a stable income for farmers who will not depend on force de majeure event available in agriculture,” says Karen Martirosyan, Head of Strategic MAS at Avenue Consulting Group, in the conversation with “Aravot”. As said by Mr. Martirosyan, today, even if the tourists are visiting rural areas of Armenia, it happened within the component part of the cultural tourism, however, serious, substantial amounts of money are not being spent in the villages. “Because the infrastructures with appropriate standards are missing, particularly, the system of rural overnight and guest-houses, which will allow tourists to stay longer in rural areas and spend more money. If a tourist stays for 3-4 hours in rural areas and spends some money, then when staying a few days, it is clear that he will spend more money.”
According to our interlocutor, studying the experience of leading countries in rural tourism, in particular, the experience of Greece, they became sure that organizing rural tourism does not require large-scale investments. Mr. Martirosyan believes that the experience of Greece might be very applicable for Armenia. According to him, local people can have great revenues on their land, by separating a part of their own houses for tourists. “The international experience shows that today there are certain brands that represent a chain of hundreds of guest-houses, in other words, they have set their own standards, marketing strategies, management tools, and those who are capable to build and manage guest-houses in rural areas, they train these people, provide with management and marketing tools, so that these people could deliver services under this brand. The studies showed that in the next five years it is also possible to establish guesthouses with similar standards in Armenia, which can provide up to 5,000 beds across the country.”
The estimations of the specialist showed that it requires 10-15 thousand dollar investment to renovate one guesthouse in the village, which will meet the standards. As presented by K. Martirosyan, the advantage of this business is that you are building a hotel not from the zero, rather than you repair and reconstruct the existing house. There are no labor costs either, since it is considered a family business, and the rural family covers the expenses. “In other word, you are able to get great results with relatively low investments,” says Mr. Martirosyan. According to him, the development of rural tourism will lead to balanced development and economic development of the marzez. In addition, it will enable each rural resident to make his economy or the business more diversified, to expand it and increase his revenues by attracting customers.
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However, as said by Mr. Martirosyan, taking the strategy of rural tourism individually and trying to pushing ahead is not that much correct approach. “We need to understand that there are a few major tourism clusters in our country, in other word, a set of places of tourism interest that are geographically close to each other, are co-related, and each of them requires a development strategy. The rural tourism should be developed within these clusters throughout the country, in other words, I mean both natural conditions, cultural monuments, various kinds of places of interest for tourists: fishing, forest environment, mountain springs, and so on. In short, the places of interests should be packed in a nice way and deliver to the tourists. For Greece, you can choose not by the location, but the places of interest for tourists. We have a problem with delivery of correct products of tourism.”
K. Martirosyan thinks that today’s urgent task should be a comprehensive study, in order, first, to find out which are these places, and to understand which communities are ready to receive tourists. “Only after the study we can come up with a comprehensive plan. Steps have been taken by the government and international donor organizations, but they were not systematic, to elaborate certain projects in specific marzes, in specific rural area for the development of tourism in rural areas, however, this task requires a systemic approach, in other words, to have a clear strategy, which will enable to achieve the targets that the Government of Armenia had planned to have it over the next 10-15 years, in addition, to increase the revenues received per tourist, to increase the number, to make our country more interesting for foreign and local tourists.” As said by K. Martirosyan, tourism is the only direction of export, which without transporting the goods, without taking it beyond the territory of the country you can handle an export of services. “In other words, the buyer comes to you, and you’re exporting your services.”
Lusine BUDAGHYAN
