ARMENIA IS ENVISAGED TO TAKE PART IN FIRST INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS TOURISM EXHIBITION

Noyan Tapan
April 29, 2008

YEREVAN, APRIL 29, NOYAN TAPAN. The first international exhibition of
religious tourism will be held in the city of Orlando (Florida, the
U.S.) on October 29 – November 1, 2008. It is envisaged that Armenia
will participate in this exhibition, NT correspondent was informed by
Alan Saffery, chief expert of the USAID-financed Competitive Armenian
Private Sector (CAPS) Program.

In his words, the program intends to provide assistance to state
bodies on management of Armenia’s tourism sector in order to ensure
the country’s participation in the indicated exhibition. "This will
allow to decide whether it is worth promoting Armenian religious
tourism product at that exhibition," A. Saffery said.

He advised to be careful not to diversify too quickly the range of
Armenian tour packages. Armenia is currently perceived in international
tourism market as a country of religious and historicial-cultural
tourism, having quite strong positions in this sector of the market. In
the opinion of A. Saffery, if Armenia starts offering too wide a range
of tour packages, its perception as a religious and historical-cultural
country will decline. As he put it, it is hard for a foreign tourist
to imagine that "small Armenia can offer tourist goods of all
kinds". He said that it will be beneficial if Armenian religious and
historical-cultural tour packages combine with other types of tourism.

According to Nadia Pasqual, CAPS travel marketing and communication
advisor, work is already underway to diversify the range of tour
packages for those traveling from Italy to Armenia. Previously Italian
tour operators promoted Armenian tour production as religious tourism,
whereas now its historical-cultural direction is stressed as well.

N. Pasqual said that Armenian tour operators are now doing work to
organize travels for tourists who take interest in such types of
tourism as mountaineering, mountain walks, cycling, adventure, rural
tourism and ecotourism, as there is demand for such tours. Promotion of
such packages will result in development of infrastructures along these
routes. According to N. Pasqual, Armenian tour operators have already
made investments in creation of the appropriate infrastructures,
purchase of equipment and training of special tour guides.