ArmInfo. We will need more efforts to develop a tour package for a Georgian tourist, rather than for a European tourist. The head of the State Committee for Tourism of the Armenian Ministry of Economic Development and Investments Zarmine Zeituntsyan at a press conference expressed this opinion on April 18.
In her opinion, to attract tourists from neighboring Georgia, it is necessary to develop the direction of cultural tourism: holding interesting events, concerts. As an example, Zeytuntsyan recalled the concert of the world-famous American rock band System Of A Down, whose members are of Armenian origin, which played a significant role in reviving the dynamics of visits of Georgian tourists to Armenia. "It is not that we have nothing to offer Georgian tourists, but to develop an interesting tourist product for them," she said.
In particular, the head of the State Committee noted that to solve this issue it is necessary to create a working group that will study the market of Georgia and the needs of citizens. At the same time, Zeytuntsyan noted that on average about 1 million Armenian citizens visit Georgia every year, who leave there mainly to rest on the Black Sea coast. "At first, it may seem easier to attract tourists from neighboring countries, but this is far from the case, in spite of the similarity of the two countries, therefore, we need to conduct a competent marketing policy in this issue," she summarized.
According to the National Tourism Administration of Georgia, 1.5 million Armenian citizens visited Georgia in 2016, which exceeded the indicator of 5 years ago by more than 2 times, and in comparison with 2006 the growth was more than 8 times. According to the source, last year Armenia ranked second (with a share of 23.6%) among the countries whose citizens made visits to Georgia. Azerbaijan -more than 1.5 million citizens, the third - Turkey - 1.2 million and the fourth -Russia - 1.3 million tourists.
