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“We have all the necessary conditions to turn Armenia into a tourist attraction,” Chairperson of the State Tourism Committee Zarmine Zeytuntsyan noted the above-mentioned during the interview conducted by the correspondent of Panorama.am.

“Regardless of all the problems, particularly the lack of infrastructures, poor road conditions, absence of public toilets, the tourist flows into Armenia continue. We simply fail to present our attractions to the world in the right way, which is the biggest issue,” she noted.

In addition to this Zeytuntsyan states that we have access problem which refers to the closed borders. “Of course the number of flights are increasing nowadays_ the prime minster has applied to 67 airline companies inviting them to Armenia, we have adopted the Open Sky policy, which, I believe, will give positive results,” she said.

Zarmine Zeytuntsyan underscores the equitable development of communities for tourism promotion. According to her, a large number of rural communities of Armenia have tourist attractions which remain unrevealed not only for the world but also for Armenia itself.

“We must introduce such mechanisms to enable each community to benefit from the tourist. This is my version of the tourism development. A tourist should not spend his/her money only on a hotel or restaurant. We will achieve great success by means of the rural tourism, ecotourism and the presentation of the Armenian traditions,” the chairperson of the State Tourism Committee said.

Whereas, according to her, our national traditions, cuisine, culture, dances are not offered to a tourist when in comparison with many other countries, Armenia has all the mentioned.

To note, in 2016 1 million 260 thousand tourists visited Armenia. The State Tourism Committee intends to increase the number to 2.5 million visitors in a three-year period. “Our airport and infrastructures have the necessary capacity. Only one thing is needed_ the world must know about Armenia. For that purpose a clear marketing strategy should be adopted,” Zarmine Zeytuntsyan noted.

Chairperson of Armenia’s State Tourism Committee especially stresses the importance of spreading information on our historical and cultural monuments. “We have a wine jug discovered 7.5 thousand years ago. The item is being studied in some museum, whereas a story over it can be developed. This is our biggest problem. Today we have undertaken that responsibility, so that we begin to cooperate with historians, ethnologists, culture and marketing specialists. We have already launched activities regarding two programs.

One of the programs refers to religious tourism,” Zarmine Zeytuntsyan noted adding that they need to develop tour packages that feature ecotourism and religious tourism.