Every year, the Ministry of Economy, when counting the tourists, also includes the “migrant workers” leaving our country for work, who are several hundred thousand, and thus providing indicators. As to how many people visit Armenia as tourism, we will never know this number because as they say the migrant who has left for Russian Federation for work is also considered a tourist when he returns home from time to time.
To the observation of Aravot on several occasions as to why our fellow-citizens that have gone abroad for migrant work and temporarily returning home are considered tourists, the responsible entities of our Ministry of Economy mention that according to the definition of the World Tourism Organization if the person’s usual environment is outside of the place where he works and receives income, and if he changes this location and moves to another place and is having an economic impact on this place, in other words, he spends the money earned in his usual environment in the place of arrival and leaves the place of his arrival within the defined dates and is not involved in paid job at the place of arrival, then he is considered a tourist. Well, as the definition of a tourist is consistent with our migrant workers, the Ministry of Economy considers them among the number of tourists, thus exaggerating the number of visitors to our country.
For this very reason, last year, the number of tourists especially from Russia was decreased. This was stated by the Minister of Economy Karen Chshmarityan on February 3, presenting the economic snapshot of Armenia as of last year. The minister said that the number of incoming tourists has been reduced in 2015, and compared to last year, 60 thousand less tourists have visited our country last year. According to Mr. Chshmarityan, the visits are mainly down from the Russian Federation and Georgia. According to the data provided by the minister, last year, 1 million 192 thousand 120 tourists visited Armenia. In fact, this number could be much bigger if thousands of “migrant workers” of our country would not have stayed at home due to the bad economic situation in Russia and had left to migrant work. According to the data reported by the RA Migration Agency, 90 percent of people leaving Armenia for Russian and returning are not tourists but migrant workers. As it is known, the main in-and-out from our country is to Russia. It turns out that more we have “migrant workers” – more tourists. Or, more precisely, number of tourists.
Lusine BUDAGHYAN,
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