Thursday, March 9 2023 16:14

ArmInfo.Travel agencies in Armenia lost 25% of their income in 2022 due to the revaluation of the dram. Arkady Sahakyan, director-founder of the Avarayr travel agency, stated this during a press conference on March 9.

In particular, he explained that due to the revaluation of the dram,  Armenia began to work within the prices of Central and Western  Europe. "If earlier, staying in a 3- or 4-star hotel, including  excursion programs, tourists in Armenia spent an average of $120-130  per day, today this figure reaches up to $200," he stressed.

In addition, Arkady Sahakyan noted that a small number of travel  agencies in 2022 managed to revise their pricing policy. Most of the  companies, according to him, worked at prices of 2021, that is, they  sold tour packages from June-July 2021 to 2022, when the dollar was  about 500 drams.

"Tens of thousands of tour packages were sold when a dollar cost 500  drams, but received 400 drams instead, that is, they lost about 25%  only because of the revaluation  of the dram," the head of the travel  agency said. The second factor in the decline in profits, according  to Sahakyan, was associated with the uncontrolled influx of citizens  from Ukraine and Russia to Armenia. In this context, the expert noted  that we are not talking about tourists, but about labor migrants who  moved to Armenia along with their capital.  This, according to him,  led to a total increase in the cost of the package by 10-15%, which  affected restaurants, hotels and transport services.

In 2022, 1.67 million tourists visited Armenia, which exceeded the  figure of a year ago 2-fold. At the same time, the vast majority  of  them are citizens of the Russian Federation (46%), followed by  citizens of Georgia (11%), Iran (7%), the United States (3%), Germany  (1%).