CAPS EXPERT: IN PERCEPTION OF ARMENIA FOREIGN TOUR OPERATORS PAY MORE ATTENTION TO RESPONSES OF THEIR CLIENTS THAN TO THE RATING OF THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM
ArmInfo
2009-03-25 14:08:00
ArmInfo.Foreign tour operators pay more attention to responses of
their clients than to the rating of the World Economic Forum, expert
of CAPS programme (Competitive Armenian Private Sector), Alan Saffrey,
told ArmInfo when commenting on the tourism competitiveness rating
for 2009 of the World Economic Forum where Armenia took the 91st
place among 133 countries.
He also said the majority of indices, forming the country’s
successfulness as a tourist direction, can hardly be precisely
measured, in particular, the historical, cultural and human
resources. ‘Actually, WEF rating is compiled not to measure the
country’s historical attractiveness, but it rather reveals the
comparative advantages and deficiencies of the country in tourism
development’, the expert said. When speaking of the low position by
the index ‘transparency of the state policy’ where Armenia takes
the 103rd place, A. Saffrey expressed an opinion that the Economy
Ministry, which curates the tourism sector in Armenia, is conducting
a very transparent policy. ‘Representatives of the Ministry regularly
get acquainted with the private sector’s opinion and put forward
the draft documents they prepared for the public discussion. The low
indicator here is rather rela ted to the fact that the private sector
has not been fully informed of the state’s initiatives. As far as I
know, the Economy Ministry also conducts a successful work towards
establishment of feedback with the state’, A. Saffrey added.
As for the efficiency of marketing and branding in tourism (the
109th place), he said the private tourism business has not yet highly
appreciated the efforts the state is making in this direction. This
may have different reasons: low level of financing of the marketing
and branding work, as well as insufficient involvement of the private
sector in this work’, A. Saffrey said. When speaking of participation
in the international tourist exhibitions as a constituent of the
country’s promotion in the tourist direction, the expert recalled
that in 2008, Armenia took part in 4 exhibition out of 13 held,
moreover, only 3 have been counted in Armenia’s rating. ‘Of course,
one should take into account that some countries take part only in the
exhibitions the audience of which are related to the target markets
selected for development – the whole world cannot be the marketing
object at once’, A. Saffrey resumed.