Ara Khzmalyan says Russia is a big tourism market for Armenia

15:44, 25 September, 2017

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 25, ARMENPRESS. Russia is among the largest tourism markets for Armenia and there is a need to carry out daily works aimed at increasing Armenia’s recognition there, Ara Khzmalyan – director of the Tourism Development Fund of Armenia, told a press conference in Armenpress, summarizing the results of ОТДЫХ 2017 annual international expo in Moscow.

“Most of the state program focuses on marketing activities that aim at correctly positioning Armenia in all domains. In general, our country doesn’t appear on the internet with favorable features, whereas we have many attractions, advantages compared to numerous other countries. Today our main task is to inform about these advantages”, Ara Khzmalyan said.

He highlighted the fact that this year Russian citizens can already visit Armenia with internal passports, but few know about it. “Our task is to inform the citizens about this opportunity, and this is a major impetus to choose Armenia. I was talking to a group of Russian tourists, they said they were informed about the internal passports via the internet and arrived in Armenia. They said it became a serious reason to choose Armenia”, Ara Khzmalyan added.

He said despite shortcomings, many leave Armenia with positive impressions and the promise to return to Armenia. He said people’s hospitality, humanism and the significant effort of the private sector also play a key role.

Commenting on the ОТДЫХ 2017 annual international expo, Ara Khzmalyan said the concrete results, the contracts signed, the agreements reached will be clear after the participating tour-operators present their reports.

“Our task is to provide complete information about Armenia, comprehensively present all directions – adventure tourism, cooking culture, museums, historical-cultural sites. Our goal is fill the information gap”, Khzmalyan said.

Ara Khzmalyan’s delegation departed for Moscow on September 18 to take part in the ОТДЫХ 2017 expo. The Center for Strategic Initiatives and the Tourism Development Fund of Armenia have conducted ‘Let’s Armenia’ large-scale campaign throughout Russia with the assistance of the State Tourism Committee.

Within the frames of closed-format event, 14 leading tour specialists from Armenia presented the country’s main tour destinations within 30 minutes.


© 2009 ARMENPRESS.am