Head of Tourism Management Department at Armenian Economy Ministry
disagrees with a number of assessments of World Economic Forum

2009-03-11 16:14:00

ArmInfo. "I disagree with a number of assessments of the World Economic
Forum in the Tourism Competitiveness Report for 2009, Head of Tourism
Management Department at Armenian Economy Ministry Mekhak Apresyan told
journalists, Wednesday.

To recall, Armenia held the 91st position, Georgia – the 73rd position,
Azerbaijan – the 76th position, Russia – the 59th one. In particular,
in "Travel and Tourism Regulatory Framework" Armenia holds the 58th
position, by "Transparency of Government Policy Making" indicator – the
103rd position. "I can’t agree with this as we place all our
initiatives – no matter whether they are draft laws, conceptions or
some other documents, at the economy ministry website for public
discussion before adopting them. This helps us to remove possible
flaws, find out the strong and weak sides of developments",- Apresyan
said. Furthermore, the Tourism Management Department holds regular
meetings with tour operators, public organizations, etc.

Apresyan admits that much work still has to be done in the use of IT in
the tourism sphere. He said that the opportunity to order a room at a
hotel via internet is still restricted in Armenia. To recall, according
to USAID research conducted in 2006-2007, less than 1% of tourists
ordered trip tickets to Armenia via internet. This index makes up 8.5%
in Great Britain. "As regards the state of natural resources, we
regularly work with ecology representatives from both governmental
departments and public organizations. We hope this work will give
tangible results",- Apresyan said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress