Armenia on the path to sustainable tourism development

YEREVAN, MARCH 23, 

In order to ensure sustainable tourism development Armenia, local self-governments, state bodies and private sector should cooperate for better outcomes. Mekhak Apresyan – first vice president of the State Tourism Committee, told reporters, Armenpress reports.

During the discussion titled Tourism Development Issues in Armenia, Apresyan said Armenia is in the process of implementation of the goal on sustainable tourism development.

“If we talk about the problems, it doesn’t mean that we are in a bad situation. Armenia has significant achievements. Armenia, being a very young tourism country, managed to reach significant increase in number of incoming tourism visits in this period of more than a decade. Over the past ten years the number of incoming tourism visits to our country has tripled reaching 1 million 500 thousand” Apresyan said.

According to him, Armenia provides high-quality service in the field of tourism, but it must not be limited to this.

He told reporters that according to the Government’s program, the number of incoming tourists to Armenia must be reached at least 3 million by 2022, complex actions must be taken and the service quality must be strengthened.

“In addition to development of infrastructures and the country’s accessibility, a great importance is attached to the development of human resource, in particular, providing the field with personnel in accordance with the high demand. Actions must be taken in the education system aimed at solving this issue, in other words, there must be cadres who will comply with the demands”, Mekhak Apresyan said. 

He also highlighted the need to study foreign languages – Persian, Russian, English and etc, especially among the tour guides and those who conduct service in tourism field.

“Our markets gradually expand, and this is one of the tasks of the state policy. Today already for us China is a targeted and promising market. The issue of visas for Chinese people has further been facilitated with the country, they can receive visa on the border, also online. And thus we will need people specialized in Chinese. Korea as well is a very interesting market for us”, Apresyan said, adding that this year the first charter flight from Korea will launch.

Source; ARMENPRESS.

English – translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan