YEREVAN, MARCH 30, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian government has developed respective mechanisms for supporting the private sector operating in tourism field during the current state of emergency declared in the country due to the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), Chairwoman of the Tourism Committee Susanna Safaryan said at a press conference.

“Tourism is one of the most affected sectors due to the coronavirus. We can say that at the moment the number of tourism visits in Armenia and all over the world reaches 0, therefore, this sector is considered more vulnerable than the others. The private sector representatives involved in providing tourism services, such as the hotels, the guesthouses, tourism subjects, whose main consumer was the tourism, are currently facing damages. For this situation many discussions were held recently with various tourism subjects, including with incoming, outgoing tour-operators, tour-guides, hotel, guest-house representatives and others who faced damages due to the spread of coronavirus”, she said, adding that various mechanisms for assisting tourism sector were discussed recently.

She said the first measure is co-lending or re-lending, meaning that the private sector representatives can apply for lending to receive 50% support from the state. Susanna Safaryan said these sums can be used for paying the salaries of their employees, state or community budget payments, paying for fees or mandatory payments, as well as paying for utilities. Safaryan said this assistance can a little bit mitigate the losses the representatives of this sector are currently facing.

According to the third measure, lending support is envisaged to the small and medium enterprises operating in the tourism sector. This measure supposes lending to those subjects whose turnover is within 24-500 million drams. “I don’t rule out that there will be subjects that may be excluded from these assistance funds, but we are discussing various measures to meet also their needs”, she said.  

Armenia has declared a state of emergency on March 16 to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The state of emergency is effective until April 14. According to the latest data, number of people infected with the new coronavirus in Armenia is 482.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan