Tuesday, May 12 2015 19:01

In fact, the tourism sector of Armenia is far from the development level reported by those responsible for the sector. At today's press conference, well-known Armenian sociologist Aharon Adibekyan said that it is hard to consider the official statistics of those visiting Armenia to be impartial, because most of them are former citizens of Armenia and our compatriots, who just visit their relatives in the country. 

To note, the sociologist's statement is partially confirmed by the official statistics, which says that in 2014 the number of visitors to Armenia totaled 2.734 mln, with 1.585 mln of them being citizens of Armenia. According to the same statistics, the number of tourists was 1.2 mln, with most of them being our compatriots. Some increase in tourism was registered in 2014 due to the developments in Ukraine and sharp depreciation of the Russian ruble and then the Armenian dram. So, part of the Russian tourists chose the domestic market and the CIS countries, including Armenia. 

The expert pointed out the underdevelopment of the tourism infrastructure of the country.  Surveys demonstrate that a big number of unique historical monuments - medieval temples and monasteries - is not yet a guarantee of tourism attractiveness. The foreigners see these cultural and historical monuments once and do not want to visit Armenia again. In fact, the country lacks an up-to-date tourism infrastructure or developed eco-tourism. The extreme tourism and sport services are restricted to one resort only. The condition of the hotel infrastructure is also far from being good. Adibekyan thinks that the hotels do not seek to develop their services or to invest in diversifying their services.
To note, according to M-Info's surveys based on the public opinion poll among the foreign tourists in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia has not got a single hotel without shortcomings. In particular, most of the interviewed tourists expressed their discontent with the quality and assortment of food. The hotel restaurants do not take into account vegetarians' choices at all. The hotels do not take into account other cultural differences either, which can affect the general impression about the country. Due to the shortage of beds at the hotels, the price offers on the Armenian market are mostly restricted to the premium class, which does not comply with the level of services. 
To note, according to the statistics, in Q1 2015 the number of travelers to Armenia dropped by 4% versus 20.5% growth in Q1 2014.