Several tourism centers in Armenia face serious challenges after latest Azerbaijani aggression - Apresyan

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS. The tourism sector in Armenia is facing serious problems following the latest large-scale military aggression of Azerbaijan, President of Armenian Tourism Federation Mekhak Apresyan told a press conference in Armenpress, adding that some tourism centers have been targeted during the military operations. The situation on the border is relatively calm today, but Apresyan says that these tourism centers do not operate now.

“Jermuk town, which is one of the tourism centers announced by the Armenian government, is in a difficult situation today. The other communities, which have been targeted, are in the same situation. As you know, many infrastructures have been physically damaged. In addition, there are no tourist visits there today. The spa centers and other facilities providing tourism services are not operating today in Jermuk”, he said.

He said that these facilities are now facing a problem that they may stop their operation, lose jobs. If the people working in the field remain unemployed for a long period of time and try to find jobs in other areas, there will soon be a loss of specialists, and filling that gap in the future will be very difficult, according to Apresyan.

Apresyan proposes the government and the private sector to discuss jointly how to preserve tourism in these affected areas, and to develop an action plan.

Due to the border tension, the travel agencies offering tour packages have also revised their works and changed the routes.

“Some changes are also being observed in incoming tourism. In particular, we again saw another big flow to Armenia connected with the mobilization announced in Russia. It’s good on one hand, as a large number of citizens are coming [to Armenia], but on the other hand the ticket prices have increased, which in fact hindered those arriving for tourism purposes”, Mekhak Apresyan said.

He said that the tourism sector has been affected since 2020 because of COVID-19 and then the war. After that many efforts have been made to restore the sector, and they were successful. In January-August 2022, more than 1 million tourists visited Armenia. In order to keep the rate, Apresyan proposes the government and the private sector to work actively in different directions, such as assessment of the situation, flexible response, re-organization of work, development of assistance programs, etc.