Increase of number of tourists, spread of culture: Artsakh’s newly appointed minister presents priorities
3 minute read
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 5, ARMENPRESS. Increasing the number of tourists, spreading Artsakh’s culture, intensifying youth programs – these are going to be the priorities of the Artsakh ministry of culture, youth affairs and tourism in near future.
Newly appointed minister Sergey Shahverdyan told Armenpress that there are significant works in all spheres which are under the jurisdiction of the ministry.
“During these years significant work has been carried out in the tourism field. In the first half of 2017 43% increase in number of foreign tourists has been recorded in Artsakh compared to 2016, and 27% increase compared to 2015. Thus, our task is to maintain this result and increase it”, he said.
Over the recent years works have been carried out in the tourism field in terms of infrastructure improvement, development of hotel economy, diversification of tourism product and other directions.
The statistics shows that the geography of countries of origin of tourists visiting Artsakh expands year by year. Mainly tourists from Russia, US, Iran, France, Italy and Germany visit Artsakh.
A lot of works need to be done also in the culture sphere. Sergey Shahverdyan said there is a need of state care in different cultural directions. He added that huge works are expected to be launched on restoring the historical-cultural monuments.
He stated that the situation in the field of preservation of monuments is also poor. “During the Soviet years, as you know, no attention was paid to the preservation of monuments, quite the contrary, everything was done to eliminate them. Therefore, years are needed for filling this gap. Nevertheless, the restoration works will continue taking into account the priority issues”, the minister said, adding that they will try to cooperate with UNESCO on this path.
The minister also considers priority spreading the Artsakh culture in international platform. He said there is already an experience of high-level cooperation in the international platform in the field of tourism.
As for the youth, Sergey Shahverdyan said first of all a thorough research is needed to reveal the issues of concern of the youth and to give a coordinated solution to them.