Armenia Strives to Build International Tourism
On May 6, 2008, USAID’s Competitive Armenian Private Sector (CAPS) project, in partnership with the Ministry of Economy of Armenia, the Armenian Tourism Development Agency, and the country’s five major industry associations, hosted the Second Armenian Tourism Competitiveness Conference, titled “Meeting New Challenges and Markets.”
Representatives of the Armenian government, NGOs, think-tanks, international and Diaspora organizations, educational institutions, the media and over 120 organizations, including tour operators, hotels, restaurants, business service providers, museums and tourist attractions attended the convention.
Building on the success of the first conference last year, the event addressed the need for the tourism industry to seek out new target markets in a more systematic manner and foster communication between the public and private sectors. “We need to determine priorities and apply a targeted approach to achieve our goals. We need to discuss things professionally during this conference, draw conclusions and incorporate them into the national tourism strategy to make it a functioning document,” urged Nerses Yeritsyan, the Minister of Economy of Armenia, during his opening remarks.
Yeritsyan touched upon Armenia’s current challenges in the tourism industry, such as business environment concerns, productivity outside of Yerevan, service quality alignment with international standards, tourist entertainment sites, and selected target sites that would help Armenia become competitive in and around the region. The Minister thanked USAID for assisting the Ministry in developing the National Tourism Development Concept Paper, which aims to increase the contribution of tourism to the country’s gross national income and help alleviate rural poverty.
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| Rolf Anderson, Director of USAID/Armenia’s Economic Growth Office, highlighted the importance of advancing Armenia’s tourism industry as a means of spurring economic growth during his remarks at the Second Armenian Tourism Competitiveness Conference on May 6, 2008. |
In his address to conference attendees, USAID/Armenia’s Economic Growth Office Director, Rolf Anderson, explained USAID’s efforts to boost tourism. “Over the past several years, the U.S. Government has directed efforts to spur tourism development in Armenia, as tourism contributes to the economic growth of the country, promotes peace and cultural understanding between nations, helps improve the image of the country which benefits many other sectors of the economy, and provides an important source of employment and GDP,” he said.
Through CAPS and its predecessor projects, USAID has provided assistance to build both government and private-sector capacity in tourism development. CAPS collaboration with Armenia’s tourism industry last year encompassed research, workforce development and training, promotion, business and association capacity strengthening, policy and planning, and business service development. The project’s major accomplishments include the development of the National Strategy for Tourism Development; the first comprehensive survey on the behavior, motivations, satisfaction and expenditures of inbound and outbound tourists; a holistic approach to tourism promotion in Italy, which resulted in a 35 percent increase in Armenian hotel occupancy by Italian tourists; and production of online GIS maps of Armenia available to tourists.
Speaking about the current state of Armenia’s tourism industry, Mekhak Apresyan, the head of the Ministry of Economy’s Tourism Department, said that over half a million tourists visited Armenia in 2007, which represents an increase of 33 percent since 2006 and average annual increase of 27 percent since 2001. Apresyan presented the Government’s current steps in fostering tourism industry, noting that some $400,000 had been allocated in the state budget to develop a promotional film on Armenia that will be displayed in target countries, and that two commercial clips will be broadcast regularly on several international channels, including EuroNews and CNN.
During the conference, participants discussed a broad range of issues, spanning from tourism and hospitality workforce skills to the competitiveness of Armenia’s air transportation to branding Armenia as a competitive identity to benefit tourism.
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