ArmInfo.Armenian President Armen Sarkissian met with the heads of a group of travel companies, to whom he spoke about the possibilities of clear support from his side and the President's Institute.
As ArmInfo was told in the press service of the RA leader, the heads of the travel companies spoke about a number of existing problems, in particular, they touched upon possible steps to restore this promising sphere with serious potential for our country, including the need for state assistance. At the same time, they stated that certain steps in this direction were taken after the previous meeting with the RA President. The importance of providing access to clear information regarding regulations due to the current situation was also pointed out.
In this regard, the President of Armenia pointed out the importance of obtaining information about the situation, as well as about the country and a specific area. At the same time, it was noted that the situation from this point of view would be clearer if travel agencies had their offices abroad and received first-hand information, then passing it on to partners.
Considering the importance of the external tourism market, Sargsyan also noted the importance of focusing on the local market.
"One of the areas of your activity should be the internal market, and you should contribute to the development of the internal market. I see the main assistance to development on your part that you can properly organize work, quality of services, ensure the level of hygiene of some services and dictate conditions. two weeks I visited different regions of the country, talked with people. I noticed that people began to think about renting out 1-2 rooms of their house in order to get an additional source of income. Especially when you consider that there is no small hotel ", - said the President of Armenia. Speaking about the assistance from the Presidential Institute, Sargsyan suggested creating a working group and clearly formulating the main directions. "We can try to help you with an international presence, participation in exhibitions in international organizations or conferences. People should know the country, know what Armenia is, what can be expected from Armenia," the RA leader said. Sargsyan also spoke about a number of initiatives of the Presidential Institute and announced his readiness to interact within the framework of each of the projects. According to him, we are talking about such initiatives as: ATOM, "Armenian Forum of Thoughts", STARMUS, "Hay Park", Gurdjieff Park. "We are ready to cooperate and support you on all individual initiatives. We are ready to be your partner so that a general presentation marketing program finally appears in our country, steps are taken in this direction. It is very important that we, with your help, reflect on the simple thoughts, ideas, slogans that describe Armenia. You know better, because you communicate with foreigners, you know what they like, what remains in their memory after leaving Armenia. I want to assure you that we are always ready to support you not only because there are difficulties today, but also because in a sense you are the vanguard of our country, that is, they will recognize the country through you, "the RA President concluded.
It should be noted that according to the RA Statistical Committee, 1.894 million tourists visited Armenia in 2019, which is 14.7% more than in 2018 (against an increase of 10.5% a year earlier). And 1.868 million people left Armenia for tourism purposes, and this is 15.1% higher than in 2018 (against an increase of 9.5% a year earlier). The dynamics of the data in a three-year breakdown indicates that in 2018-2019 there was a high positive balance of tourist flow, while in 2016 the balance was negative - there were more tourists leaving Armenia for tourist trips than those who visited Armenia. But, in 2020, the coronavirus pandemic and the restrictive measures taken, incl. in terms of international air, rail and bus services, negatively affected the global tourism industry and related segments. Specifically for Armenia, the statistics for the 1st quarter of 2020 indicate that the number of visitors decreased by 14.6% per annum - to 311,264 people, and those who left decreased by 13.3% - up to 275,716 people, while in 2019, in the same period, almost the same growth in entries and exits was recorded - 5.2% and 5.7%, respectively. As a result, the positive balance of tourist traffic decreased in the first quarter of 2020 by 23.7% per annum, against an increase of 2.1% a year earlier. And already at the end of the first half of 2020, only the tourists who arrived were indicated in the statistical report, the number of which decreased by more than 2 times on an annual basis - to 311.264 thousand people. It is also worth noting that the World Tourism Organization presented a report in May, which indicates that the number of tourists in the world in 2020 may decrease by 60-80 percent compared to the previous year.
