“When you sit and discuss any question, do you ask yourself that there are 158 Christian countries, one of which is Armenia and 99 percent of the world does not know that we are the first country in the world that adopted Christianity. I think it should be a number one issue for you.
Up to now I am surprised at that great oversight you have had because all the children in the world know about seven wonders of the world, but abroad when we talk even to the most famous people and tell them about this they get surprised. Whereas this should be our “usiness card” turning to Asoghik priest Karapetyan, said one of the representatives of tour agencies.
He urged the church to be more active and conduct informative works in this direction in the world. In answer to this, Fr. Asoghik priest said that the church is not an advertising agency, the tour companies should work on advertisement. Then Fr. Asoghik listed how the Armenian Apostolic Church makes Armenia famous in the world, “Thanks to the efforts of the Armenian Church and the government of Armenia, just several months ago the Catholic Church Pope John Paul visited Armenia. His visit had the motto as a visit to the first Christian country. More than one milliard Catholic world knows him well and is well aware that Armenia is the first Christian country”. In the words of Fr. Asoghik priest Karapetyan, the issue of inviting the Christians to the first Christian country “weights on the tour agencies”.
Then the priest asked with what themes our tour companies go to the world tour exhibitions or whether they go or not. This conversation took place during the Armenian tour conference, which was organized at the assembly hall of the Armenian General Benevolent Union. The aim of the conference was to discuss the current situation and main issues of tourism. Minister of Culture, Armen Amiryan, who was present at the event said that they were preparing photos about 100 monument, and interesting legends for each historical-cultural monument.
Turning to Armen Amiryan, another representative of a tour company said that those questions had been raised to the former minister of culture many times, “The roads are in a horrible conditions, we bring tourist and get ashamed. The issue of Yerevan look should also be discussed. The old buildings are being demolished, and the new ones are being built”. To the first question Armen Amiryan said that with the support of the World Bank a new project was launched, according to which the infrastructures leading to the cultural sites would be improved, and those places that were not included in the project, the Ministry would try to renovate 3 to 4 historical-cultural monuments with their infrastructures yearly.
As for the demolition of the old buildings, the Minister of Culture said that he did not agree with the question, saying “what old building has remained that can be demolished?” Representative of the Municipality of Tsaghkadzor City, Gerasim Mkrtchyan offered Hrachya Rostomyan, Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs to organize international competitions on alpine skiing as there are not frequent events in the city that has great potential of tourism. Mr. Rostomyan explained that the International Alpine Ski Federation would not allow as the incline of the landscape is big and does not meet the standards. The minister, in turn, urged the Municipality of Tsaghkadzor City to establish entertainment places as the alpine skiers who are mainly young people after skiing want to get busy with something interesting and have fun.
Mr. Rostomyan gave the example of Formula 1 races that are not very vivid events but every time the organizers invite a famous person or a celebrity and people get a chance to see him/her after that event. Hrachya Rostomyan as an example offered to ask Serj Tankian to give concerts in Tsaghkadzor and that city will immediately become famous in the region and in the world.
Lusine BUDAGHYAN
