ArmInfo.The main tourist flow to Armenia last year was formed from Russia, Georgia, Iran, the USA, Germany, France, Ukraine, China and Belarus. Acting Head of the Tourism Committee Susanna Hakobyan announced at a meeting with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. According to her, n exceptional increase in the total number of tourist visits was recorded in 2023, 2,317 thousand people, an increase of 40% compared to January-December 2022.
The Prime Minister noted according to statistics, that this year, certain changes have been recorded in the structure of tourism. Thus, the number of tourists arriving from Russia has decreased compared to last year, but there has been a certain increase in the number of tourists from other countries. According to Hakobyan, the number of tourists arriving from France, Germany and the United Arab Emirates has increased.
It was noted that according to the World Tourism Organization's <World Tourism Barometer>, Armenia ranked 7th in the list of countries with the highest growth in tourist visits in January-September 2023. According to Hakobyan, studies show that if in 2012 the average tourist's expenses amounted to $798during their stay in Armenia, now the <average bill> has increased to $1,000. But at the same time, the length of stay on a tourist trip has decreased by one day - from 17 to 16 days. However, an ordinary classic tourist who comes to Armenia on vacation stays in the country for 6-7 days. The importance of adopting the Law on Tourism in 2023, which will enter into force on September 1, 2024, was noted at the meeting. Now, according to the law, the activities of tourism service providers will be subject to notification, and in 2025, a new qualification system for persons providing tourism services will be introduced on January 1. "Until now, we did not have any information about tour operators. At the same time, a financial guarantee requirement was established for outbound tourism services, since we had many cases when, for example, an airline transported tourists abroad but did not return them, and funds from the state budget were spent on the return of RA citizens. Another important change is the requirement for mandatory qualification of tour guides, which is directly related to the correct presentation of the country and history. The law will also affect the ethical code of guides. A supervisory function for tourism services, which was also absent before, was also introduced, " Susanna Hakobyan said.
