ARMENIA MAY BE ADVERTISED ON CNN AND EURONEWS

ArmenPress
March 24 2005

YEREVAN, MARCH 24, ARMENPRESS: Armenia may be advertised on CNN and
Euronews as an attractive tourist destination if talks with these two
TV channels are accomplished successfully, Arthur Zakarian, head of
a trade and economic development ministry department, told Armenpress.

“We are ready to launch an aggressive advertising campaign in a range
of countries, whose citizens we believe would like to visit Armenia,
but this requires huge finances, which we cannot afford, but private
sector and some donor organizations are working actively in this
direction,” he said.

According to Zakarian, the Armenian Diaspora can play a very positive
role in helping to bring more tourists to Armenia. “As we see it,
permanently operating information centers in countries with strong
Armenian communities would not demand much efforts and much money,”
he said.

According to official figures, some 263,000 foreigners visited Armenia
last year, a 27 percent more than in 2003. Zakarian said tourism
sector’s share in the overall GDP of 2004 was around 8 percent. He
said some 7,000 people directly and around 80,000 indirectly are
engaged in this sector. He said an average tourists stays in Armenia
12 days spending some $1000.