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Armenian Geographic Project seeks to discover geographic sites in the territory of Armenia through tourism and popularize places which are not much known to the public. The aim of the projects is to increase the tourism flows, the head of the project Tigran Shahbazyan told reporters at a press conference on Thursday.

The speaker referred to main tourist destinations of Armenia which are churches, cultural monuments, while their project looks to refocus the attention to unknown mountains, gorges where many monuments are located as well.

“People are interested in visiting new places. We mainly work with Armenian tourists,” Shahbazyan explained, adding foreign tourists usually visit Armenia once and they are prone to seeing the most famous sightseeing during their visit, such as Tatev, Noravank, Haghpat, Haghartsin.

Chairman at Trans-Caucasian Trail NGO Vahagn Vardumyan, present at the press conference, noted their organization was established in 2016 by number of enthusiasts who decided to build a hiking trail through the region of the Caucasus.

“The project covers Armenia-Georgia-Azerbaijan with Armenia-Georgia direction currently active. Some of our American fiends had initial correspondence with the Azerbaijani side with not result achieved yet,” Vardumyan said.

He pointed that their primary task is building hiking trails in Armenia and continuously improve the existing ones without damaging the nature. In his words, the ongoing works involve locals and other supporters since the works are too expensive.

The trail in the territory of Armenia is set to stretch from north to south, passing through villages at places, with a 5-7-day trail in Dilijan National Park with camping places and tents. Vardumyan said that through developing those works they can attract new tourists to Armenia, saying nature should be interesting for promoting ecotourism.

Gor Hovhannisyan, who is a mountaineering instructor, spoke of the prospects for developing alternative tourism Armenia, specifically in the adventure tourism.

“Ensuring safety is vital for adventure tourism. Tourist companies visiting Armenia to see the country’s opportunities before organizing big tours, often note we lack mountain rescue services in line with international standards, alternative routes, other relevant infrastructure,” Hovhannisyan said.