MARCH 1 EVENTS AFFECT HAVE SOME EFFECT ON NUMBER OF TOURISTS TO ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
April 1, 2008

YEREVAN, APRIL 1, NOYAN TAPAN. The March 1 events have had some effect
on the number of tourists to Armenia: some groups of tourists cancelled
their trips to our country, the head of the tourism department of
the RA ministry of trade and economic development Mekhak Apresian
said at the March 31 press conference to discuss the results of a
one-year study on international travels to Armenia.

According to marketing director of the Armenian Tourism Development
Agency (ATDA) Syuzanna Azoyan, 700-800 tourists from Germany cancelled
their trips because of the March 1 events. She said these trips could
have been made, if higher security had been ensured, which, however,
would have increased 2-3fold the cost of tour packages.

Answering the question about what steps have been taken by Armenia
in response to Azerbaijan’s statements to avoid visiting Armenia,
S. Azoyan stated that the warning about visits to Armenia was
immediately removed from the French MFA website after the Armenian
embassy has sent a letter to the MFA of France, while the German
ministry of foreign affairs had declared it would remove the warning
after the lifting of the state of emergency, which was done. S. Azoyan
said that "all tour operators were informed about it".

In her words, political instability, shocks, outbreaks of a disease
in any country have an impact on the number of tourists. However, the
effect of the March 1 events is not so considerable that the matter
concerns discontiniation of tourism development in Armenia. M. Apresian
added that if a tourist decides to visit a country, he/she will do
so when the the event to have resulted in the trip’s delay is over.