Saturday, March 17 2018 16:35

ArmInfo. Recently, foreign citizens prefer individual tourism, less resorting to the services of travel agencies to purchase tour packages, said at the March 17 press conference the chairman of the State Tourism Committee Zarmine Zeituntsyan. In this vein, she noted Iranian tourists.

According to Zeytuntsyan, considering these trends at the border checkpoints, brochures for Farsi containing the necessary information about Armenia have been prepared for the citizens of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In addition, she noted that for them the hotline will work in the 24/7 mode. "From the checkpoint to the entrance to the city, tourists will see posters in their native language with tourist destinations and posters with congratulations in connection with the Novruz holiday, as Armenia is an attractive market for Iranian tourists during the celebration of the Muslim New Year," she said.

Zeytuntsyan explained that this attitude to stimulating the influx of Iranian tourists is also due to the public's incorrect attitude to the Iranian citizens. "We position ourselves as a hospitable nation, although we do not behave in this way, from taxi services to servicing in restaurants. There have been cases when Iranian citizens encountered at the entrance to institutions with signs "Iranian citizens are not allowed to enter." This is all - the consequence of life within the closed regime for 70 years. We want to see only tourists and sometimes we are negative about Muslims. It is impossible to judge the entire nation on a single occasion. If we were judged on the behavior of our compatriots abroad, then we would have long ago had to be burned out with shame. We should travel more, get acquainted with the cultures and history of other nations, "- did not miss the chance to share her opinion with Zeytuntsyan.

In the same vein, she pointed to the prosperous Armenian Diaspora in the Arab countries, which managed to achieve success largely thanks to the warm attitude of the citizens of these countries. According to her, in 2017 the number of tourists from the IRI to Armenia reached 220 thousand, with an annual growth of 16%.  "How much growth we will provide this year - I can not say. But we are optimistic. But this is in case there are no excesses connected with a sharp fluctuation in the rate of the Iranian real, as it was years earlier, "Zeytuntsyan said.