ArmInfo. Lack of direct flights prevents the growth of the tourist flows to Armenia. This opinion has been expressed by Marina Kprelyan, the Director of the Armenia Travel+M tour agency. According to her, the Government of RA shall take steps to set up direct air flights at least with the countries whom the Armenia has official agreement on activation of tourist relations. She differentiated Japan and China among those countries, where the majority of tourists arrived to Armenia from, but this growth would
be even significant if direct flights were available.
M. Kprelyan mentioned that Armenia is mainly visited by the citizens of Germany, Austria, England, France, Italy and Spain. There are also tourists from Israel and the US. In the outbond tourism the most demanded direction is Georgia, since it ensures affordable recreation and does not require air flights. Greece and Spain are also
affordable for the Armenian tourists", she mentioned. According to Kprelyan the widescale measures implemented in Armenia, particularly dedicated to the centenary of the Armenian Genocide, as well as the Sixth Panarmenian Games had their input in the tourist flow. But these measures are not sufficient for significant development of the tourist industry, it is required to implement aggressive advocacy of tourist attractiveness of Armenia, advertisements, PR Campaigns, participation in the International exhibitions aimed at dissemination of information about Armenia.
According to the National Statistic Service of RA, 1 256 917 tourists arrived in Armenia during the 2015 Q2, which is greater than the result of the similar period of 2014
for 1.8%. In 2015 Q2, 250 326 people left Armenia for tourism purposes with growth in the annual breakdown of 1%.
