Armenian president praises newly-built luxury hotel in central Yerevan

Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
1 Jun 05

[Presenter over video of hotel and opening ceremony] The
newly-constructed Golden Palace hotel in Victory Park has enlarged
Yerevan’s centre, Armenian President Robert Kocharyan told journalists
after attending the opening ceremony and visiting the hotel. The
president said the fact that the hotel was constructed with foreign
investment shows that tourism is developing in Armenia.

The president said that about 260,000 tourists visited Armenia in 2004,
whereas only 35,000 tourists visited Armenia in 1998. Armenia can
receive 1m tourists annually, the president noted and added that they
wish there were two or three times as many of these hotels in Armenia.

It took four years to build the Golden Palace hotel, and the owner of
the hotel is the Cypriot (?Riverty Holding) company. The Golden Palace
hotel has 66 luxury, diplomatic, ambassadorial and presidential suites,
as well as an Italian restaurant, cigar bars and a conference hall.

[Robert Kocharyan, captioned, speaking in the hotel] This programme is
part of our policy of developing tourism. I heard that they wanted
to construct a very good hotel. But what I have seen here today
surpasses all my expectations. There is a need for other similar
hotels in Yerevan.

What is more interesting is that after the construction of the Kaskad
and this hotel, the city centre seems to have been enlarged. I am
confident that this hotel will work successfully since growth in the
tourism field totals 25 per cent annually. This means that attention
paid to this sphere is yielding positive results today.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress