YEREVAN, MAY 22, ARMENPRESS. The tourism sector in Armenia is a priority direction.  "Armenpress" interviewed the Assistant of the Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Karapetyan on the issues concerning the current problems of the sector, the development opportunities and the prospects. Tigran Karapetyan introduced his insight of analysis and the programs related with this sector.

-Mr. Karapetyan, for a couple of years we state that even after the global economic crisis, a growth of the tourism sector is observed in Armenia. This sector is declared a priority sector in our country and at first sight it seems that everything is good. Is it really so?

- It is true that the growth of the tourism sector is recorded, regardless of the crisis. It can be said that in major tourist markets, including the European countries, both incoming and outgoing tourism, even during the years of the crisis has been virtually the only sector that grew. The same situation was observed in Armenia. The tourism growth is not associated with the crisis, as the requirement of the people  to travel, gather information, get acquainted with something new cannot be prevented by a crisis.

- What are your plans for the future and in what tourist markets can Armenia display itself?

- In any case, we have a large number of Armenian foreign citizens who are coming for pilgrimage to Armenia and abroad we have Armenian citizens who are coming home. More than half of the one million foreign citizens crossed the northern borders of Armenia, about 400 people - "Zvartnots" airport and the rest, about 100 thousand, came from Armenia's southern border, mostly Iranian citizens. The northern borders are crossed mostly by the Russian and Georgian citizens, by "Zvartnots" - the majority of 400 thousand visitors are Russian citizens.

In 2011-2013, a series of events related to the Armenian culture were held in Italy, which became a big opportunity for enhancement of tourist attraction. In these terms, Italy has become a very important market in the country's tourism sector. (THE FULL VERSION OF THE INTERVIEW IS AVAILABLE IN ARMENIAN)

Interview by Armen Khachatryan