YEREVAN, MARCH 20, ARMENPRESS. “Once in Armenia” competition of unique and real stories will be an additional impetus to present Armenia and Artsakh to the world. It enables to present Armenia’s tourism attractiveness, disclose famous and still unknown sides of one of the ancient countries of the world.

The competition has been initiated by Armenia Airlines, ARMENPRESS state news agency and the State Tourism Committee of the Ministry of Economic Development and Investments. It will popularize tourism in the contemporary media and will strengthen tourism-media link.

The ceremony of awarding the winners of the competition was held on March 19 in Yerevan.

“We are holding such event for the first time. The State Tourism Committee and ARMENPRESS state news agency assisted us in this project. This was the first serious cooperation with ARMENPRESS, and I hope the cooperation is on the right path. Among the series of stories in one case was the tourist who visited Armenia, and in the other one was the person with whom the story happened. We made the final selection from the already selected nearly three dozens of stories”, Gevorg Khachatryan, Armenia Airlines’ Deputy Director, said.

The main prize of the competition was a free air ticket en route Yerevan-Beirut-Yerevan or Beirut-Yerevan-Beirut. Khachatryan said Beirut was chosen as many Armenians live there. “It is the country where one can communicate with what is Armenain – culture, history, churches, even trade. Armenians have a great contribution in Beirut”, he said and expressed hope that the trip will serve the right purpose for the winners.

Aram Ananyan – Director of ARMENPRESS state news agency, attached great importance to this project.

“By this project we solve several issues – increasing Armenia’s tourist attractiveness, strengthening tourism-media ties, popularizing tourism and creating content of media production by consumers in contemporary media. This was the first attempt of such cooperation, and I think it was quite successful”, Aram Ananyan said, adding that they will try to implement similar projects in the future which will make both tourism and journalism more attractive.

Mekhak Apresyan – First Vice President of the State Tourism Committee, said the competition aimed at having as much interesting stories as possible. “It also aimed at presenting Armenia, Artsakh, tourism result with more interesting and diversified results to both the domestic and international market based on these stories. And as this required a creative solution, we made a decision to announce such competition”, he said.

Apresyan said the competition reached its goal, quite interesting opinions were voiced. And maybe in the future a film or just a video will be made by using these stories.

Nane Hayrapetyan and Meri Zohrabyan – the two winners of “Once in Armenia” competition, received air tickets en route Yerevan-Beirut-Yerevan or Beirut-Yerevan-Beirut. Anna Gevorgyan, Gayane Sargsyan, Liana Yeghiazaryan and Mher Ter-Tadevosyan received 50% discount cards for the trip.

“I was planning long to visit Beirut, and every time it didn’t happen for some reasons. When I read about the competition that the award is a trip to Beirut, I decided to apply. But until the last day of the deadline of the competition I couldn’t decide what to write. My sister gave the idea. And I wrote a story about our village and Tatev. I presented the village bus where I was, as well as my family, the people of the village and French tourists”, Nane Hayrapetyan said.

Next winner Meri Zohrabyan said she decided to participate in the competition as she dealt with Diaspora-Armenians both in the scientific circle and in tourism field and she always tried to understand why repatriation didn’t work. “Given these concerns I started research and communicated with Armenians abroad. And I understood that we from Armenia, and they from abroad, can create something common. My story focused on the idea that one should feel strong and not concentrate on weaknesses and the past. We should remember the past, attach importance to it, but not to stay on that point”, she said.

Liana Yeghiazaryan stated that her story was about a beautiful church located in the mountain. She said her story is just a call and invitation to everyone to go to see that church in Martiros village.

Photos by Gevorg Perkuperkyan

The competition launched on December 21, 2017. Several dozens of stories were received.

Anna Grigoryan

English – translator/editor: AnetaHarutyunyan