Tourism Propagated at Every Turn: Why Tourists’ Flow to Armenia is yet Decreasing?
In the fourth quarter of 2015 the number of tourists visiting Armenia comprised 1.256.572, or as compared to 2014 of the same period this indicator fell by 3.2%. Upon official data in the fourth quarter of 2015, the number of people leaving Armenia for traveling purposes comprised 310.164 , or as compared to the same period of 2014 the indicator reduced by 1.3%. According to reports by hotel service sector, 29.4% of tourists visiting Armenia in the fourth quarter of 2015 belongs to CIS countries, 23.3% to the EU countries and 47.3% – to other countries. Arthur Voskanyan, Head of Armenian Tourism Association, expert on tourism and hospitality, in an interview with 168.am conditioned decrease of tourism volumes by a few factors, “The first is instability of Russian ruble, due to which tour agencies suffered losses, or at least didn’t obtain anticipated income, they passed dollar field, however, it’s expensive for Russians. Those who were able to overcome obstacle with ruble by inner resources, this instability isn’t so badly reflected on them.”
According to A.Voskanyan, flow of tourists to Georgia has been activated as well, some of them visit Armenia as well, but many of them are limited by Georgia. In his words, efforts of the Government last year were directed to European market, and Russian market was ignored to some extent, however, when Egypt and Turkey were closed for Russia, Greece was rather flexible and filled this gap by attractive offers. According to the specialist, rise of ticket prices, lack of work or minority of the work done obstacle their flow to Armenia. A.Voskanyan stated, if price for Krasnodar and other destinations becomes cheaper, flow of tourists will be more active from there.
The expert mentioned a novelty of the field: rather unaware people penetrate into the field, without proper experience, for instance, if Russian company brings a group to Georgia and Armenia, suddenly an intermediator emerges, who promises to render cheap service, however, tourists complaining of low quality leave the country, “These are people unaware of the field and take every measure for earning a living, but absence of professionalism repels tourists. Presently all around tourism is beingpropagated.”
A.Voskanyan noted, despite all these, positive tendency is observed as well—tourists are satisfied with service provided by our tour agencies, their expectations from Armenia are justified and they serve as a live advertisement.
By Gayane Khachatryan
