Armenia develops Religious Tourism program

ArmInfo. "In Armenia, a program for the development of "religious tourism" is being developed, the head of Armenian  State Committee for Tourism Zarmine Zeituntsyan said at the event dedicated to tourism. She noted that many Europeans are very interested in holy places and therefore they often choose the State of Israel as pilgrims. "But Armenia is also religiously rich, being the first country to adopt  Christianity as a state religion, it has many interesting churches, temples and sacred artifacts, interesting historical monuments that are attractive to the adherents of religious tourism," she noted.

She informed that State Committee works also on creating development program for extreme tourism, which is becoming more and more popular in many countries, and as Armenia is rich with many sided natural resources, providing total extreme rest, this direction should be settled.

Zarine Zeituntsyan also noted that it is necessary to develop interesting tours for Armenians of Diaspora:  "Many of our compatriots consider Armenia as motherland of their ancestors and come only to pay  their national duty." It is necessary to interest the representatives of the Diaspora so that they consider trips to Armenia not as a duty, but as an interesting exciting journey from which one can get a lot of impressions and pleasures, " Zeytuntsyan said. There are wonderful traditions in Armenia, the famous Armenian hospitality and wonderful cuisine known to  the whole world. These are our strengths, which should be known to everyone who is interested in tourist trips in Armenia, "the head of the Committee noted.

She stressed that today as a target audience for the development of tourism are considered such countries as Russia, Iran, Diaspora Armenians and Europeans. In addition, it would be desirable to interest also residents of the United States and Latin America and set  contacts with them in terms of tourism development,"Zarina Zeituntsyan noted. She complained about the lack of development of flights with Armenia, as well as the poor quality of roads within the country.