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YEREVAN, DECEMBER 25, ARMENPRESS. Tourism indicator declined by 0.9% during the period of January-September of this year. In the mentioned period 932 thousand 587 tourists arrived in Armenia which is a decline by 8 thousand 564 against the same period of 2014. Head ofTourismDevelopmentPolicy Department of the Ministry of Economyof Armenia MekhakApresyanmentioned about this in a press conference at “Armenpress” media hall briefing the results of year 2015. In his words, decline of tourism indicator is explained by external factors.
“The decline of inbound tourism in 2015 is explained by the decline of visits from Russia. Citizens of Russia have a large contribution in the overall tourism visits. Therefore, decline of visits from Russia has a negative impact on the overall statistics”, Mekhak Apresyan said. According to him, the number of visits from Russia to Armenia were 158 thousand in the third quarter of 2015 against 174 thousand of the same period in 2014. The decline is 9%. Mekhak Apresyan noted that the decline of Russian tourists does not mean that interest towards Armenia also declines within Russians. It refers to all directions.
“According to data published by the Tourism Administrationof Russia, in the first half of 2015 the number of outgoing tourists was 5 million, 489 thousand and 293, which is a decline by 38% compared to the same period of the previous year. It is explained by a number of economic factors in Russia, particularly, by the devaluation of the Russian ruble. Russian tourists have cut off their tours to different countries, including Armenia. By the way, years ago we encountered with a similar problem with Iran, when currency devaluation occurred there resulting in decline of Iranian tourists to Armenia”, Mekhak Apresyan added.
Despite of decline of tourists, Mekhak Apresyan considers 2015 as a successful year. The number of tourists increased in some directions. Particularly, there was some increase in visitors from Iran, Iraq, Canada and the USA in the third quarter of the year.