YEREVAN, December 26, /ARKA/. The number of foreign tourists visiting Armenia in the first  9 months of 2018 grew by  8.8% when compared to the same time span of  2017 amounting to 1,275,209 people, the head of the Tourism Committee Hripsime Grigoryan told reporters on Wednesday.

She said  the main stream of tourists came from Russia (525,423 people),  Georgia (233,125 people), Iran (132,829 people), also USA (46,138 people) and Ukraine (24 308 people). The number of tourists visiting Armenia from India has grown by 31%, from China  by 7% and from Kazakhstan by 83%.

"The main task of the Tourism Committee in 2018 has been to present the changes stemming from the velvet revolution , which have strengthened the country's image of a stable and safe destination for tourism," Grigoryan said.

She also said that 1.5 million people visited the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, USA earlier this summer that focused on Armenia and several American tour operators included Armenia in their tour packages.

She also reported that tourism in Armenia is getting “younger,” meaning that more young people seeking  extreme, sports and festival tourism are visiting the country. –0–