“Iranian tourists always feel themselves better in Armenia, our country is becoming more known to the Iranian market. One of the main reasons is that the Iranians return from here contented,” such an opinion was expressed by the Head of the Tourism Department of the Ministry of Economy, Mekhak Apresyan, at the press conference with the journalists. As presented by him, one contented tourists can, so to speak, send 10 new potential tourists to Armenia because he is going to present Armenia positively among his environment. Soon, the Islamic world is celebrating its new year, the Novruz Bayramı, and like every year, this year too, the responsible entities for Armenia’s tourism industry, as Apresyan said, are waiting for their Iranian friends.
Note, however, no matter how the Iranians feel good in Armenia, anyway, they are gradually getting interested in Georgia and going to Georgia thru Armenia. When in 2012, Georgia abolished the visa regime with Iran, the number of Iranian tourists to this country sharply increased and became almost 90 thousand from about 60 thousand. Later, Georgia again introduced a visa regime in 2014 and the number of Iranian tourists decreased. This year, Georgia again abolished the visa regime with Iran and as reported by the country’s top officials, they expect a large influx of Iranian tourists, especially in the summer beach season.
Mekhak Apresyan, citing the official data, noted that in 2015 compared with 2014, the number of incoming touristic visits has decreased by 1% due to the decrease in the number of tourists coming from Russia. One of the good news in this industry, according to Apresyan, is the building of 4 hotel complexes in Armenia last year, including expensive and high-quality hotels – Hotel “Hilton” in Yerevan and Hotel “Hayat” in Jermuk. Economist Artak Manukyan who was a participant in the discussion noted that the majority of visitors to our country are Armenians by origin and in general, the vast majority of visitors prefer to stay not in the hotels but with the relatives or in rented apartments. Mekhak Apresyan tried to disagree with this observation but he also could not present any figure about the percentage of tourists visiting Armenia who have refused to stay in the hotels.
Analyzing the data of the National Statistical Service, “Aravot” found out that in 2014, a total of 164 thousand out of 1 million 200 thousand tourists visiting Armenia have used the hotel services and the rest have stayed with their relatives or rented apartments. In 2015, again 164 thousand out of 1 million 189 thousand tourists used the hotel services. In other words, in 2014, 1 million 39 thousand tourists have not stayed in the hotels while in 2015, 1 million 24 thousand people have not used the hotel services. Note that the opening of 4 or 5 stars hotels does not promote the growth of tourism. Experts of tourism industry, the tour operators, are constantly voicing that Armenia needs economy class hotels.
Director of “Areni Fest” Foundation, Nune Manukyan, in an interview with “Aravot”, said that generally tourists arriving in Armenia are not discontent with our country and hospitality. “We have a potential and the tourism will grow in Armenia as a gastronomic tourism country. People around the world are seeking for new flavors: both for drinks (wine) and food. Now, in this sense, they go more to Italy and France and also Singapore, Malaysia as a gastronomic tourism country,” said Nune Manukyan.
To the question of whether our Garni-Geghard and historical monuments are not of any interest and whether this top sight for attracting tourists is no longer relevant, Nune Manukyan said, “When I was making a working visit to different countries, I am always asked about our cuisine and food. Yes, the foreigners are surprised at our history but, for instance, one young Swiss man was upset for being taken only to churches for 7 days and he has not found any interesting place in our country. We must create things of interest for every age.” Manukyan also noted that if the government is willing to develop winter tourism, then it is at least incomprehensible why it is non-working day from January 1 to 9-10, “In the first days of January until January 6, more restaurants, museums and entertainment centers were closed.” In addition, according to Manukyan, cheaper air tickets and economy class hotels are one of the factors for promoting the growth in the number of tourists.
Referring to Georgia’s abolishment of visa regime with Iran and the preference of Iranians of Georgia to Armenia, Manukyan said that Georgia has one thing that whatever Armenia does cannot compete and it is the sea, “The alternative should be more affordable price proposals. But there is one more thing: Georgians are able to attract tourists with interesting shows.”
Nelly BABAYAN,
“Aravot” daily 19.03.2016
