LEBANESE AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA: ARMENIA’S TOURISM IS UNDERGOING AN
UNPRECEDENTED UPSURGE
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 2, NOYAN TAPAN. The 7th international exhibition
"Country of Talking Stones" aimed at promoting the domestic and
regional tourism opened in Yerevan on November 2. The RA deputy
minister of trade and economic development Ara Petrosian stated that
this exhibition and other tourism-related events show that the
development of tourism in Armenia is an irreversible process. According
to him, significant achievements have been registered in tourism thanks
to cooperation of the state and private sectors, in particular, 381
thousand tourists visited Armenia in 2006, and this number is expected
to reach 450 thousand this year. In the words of the deputy minister,
the main task of the tourism sector is to develop tourism in the
country’s remote regions, especially those rich in historical and
cultural monuments.
The director of the USAID Competitive Armenian Private Sector (CAPS)
program Hayley Alexander said that there is much to do in Armenia’s
tourism sector as the competition in international market is
increasing. Armenia occupies only 0.08% of the European tourism market.
In the words of the Lebanese ambassador to Armenia Gabriel Geara,
Armenia’s tourism sector is undergoing an unprecedented upsurge due to
country’s sustainable development and internal stability. He said that
10 thousand Lebanese citizens (most of them – Armenians) visited
Armenia this year. "I urge Armenians to go to Lebanon’s seaside which
can be considered as the seaside of Armenians," he added.