ArmInfo.It will be quite difficult to resume tourist flow in the context of the second wave of coronavirus, so investments in tourism will be aimed at improving the quality and availability of infrastructures.
This was announced on November 3 by the Minister of Economy of the Republic of Armenia Tigran Khachatryan during the discussion of the draft state budget for 2021, noting that the matter concerns roads, monuments of cultural heritage, etc. "No matter how much we spend in 2021, we will still not be able to restore the same volumes of tourist flow to the country, because the external environment is like that. But we didn't cut our expenses so that, as soon as the world allows, we would be able to return to the implementation of the goals laid down earlier, "he explained.
Khachatryan emphasized that it is impossible to delay the implementation of programs in the field of tourism, on the contrary, the current situation requires double efforts to fully realize the potential of tourism, which will become a source of increasing income and improving the well-being of citizens. At the same time, the minister recalled that due to the first wave of coronavirus, the turnover of companies providing services in the field of tourism, including travel agencies, catering organizations, hotels and transport organizations, decreased by 60%, and jobs decreased by 30%. This trend, he said, would have continued if it had not been for the implementation of government assistance programs. The government allocates 650 million drams monthly for this purpose. "We may not be able to achieve a rapid recovery of the sphere, but using such support mechanisms, we prevented the deepening of the crisis, and this already speaks of the effectiveness of the programs developed by the government to mitigate the economic consequences of the coronavirus", - he said.
It should be noted that according to the Statistical Committee, in the first half of 2020, 311 264 foreign citizens visited Armenia for tourism purposes, which is more than 2 times less than a year ago.
