PREMIER: NUMBER OF TOURISTS COMING TO ARMENIA TO REACH 600,000 IN 2009
/ARKA/
July 27, 2009
YEREVAN
On Tuesday, Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, speaking at a
meeting with tour operators, forecast that 600,000 tourists would
come to Armenia in 2009.
"About 85,000 tourists visited Armenia at the first quarter of 2009 –
2.7% more than at the same quarter of the previous year. The tourist
inflow remains the same, and we expect this year’s result will be
600,000", he said.
The number of tourists in Armenia grew 2.8% in Jan-March 2009, compared
with the same period of the previous year, and reached 86,600 against
84,200 visitors a year earlier.
The number of Armenian travelers overseas reduced 4.9% to 85,200.
Only 10% of the travelers to Armenia stay in hotels and use tour
operators’ services.
Others travel independently.Independent trips are three or four times
cheaper than tour packages.
Sargsyan thinks things must be changed substantially and tour
operators’ services must become cheaper.
He advised all the travel companies of the country to look through
the Economy Ministry’s reports periodically to outline their potential
clients and the range of services.
Tour operators will learn from these reports that the Japanese,
Canadians and Americans spend much money here (about $1,400 every day),
and Iranians and Georgians spend only $30 to $40 a day.
" You could also know from reports that only 20% of tourists to
Armenia come here for the first time. Others come the second or third
time. It means 80% of tourists are those people who grew fond of
Armenia and travel here again and again", Sargsyan said. The premier
views Armenians living worldwide as potential tourists.
He said 90% of them have never seen their historical motherland.
Sargsyan said that Armenian tourism managed to avoid the eight-to-ten
world decline in 2008 and 2009.
"The number of tourists from CIS member countries precipitously
shrank in Armenia this year, but tourist inflows from Iran and Georgia
intensified instead", he said.