New state committee for tourism to promote national tourism products
Armenia’s recently-established State Committee for Tourism will be dealing will promotion of national tourist products at international markets, Minister of Economic Development and Investments Suren Karayan told a Cabinet session today before it approved the structure and the composition of the new government agency.
The minister said that the main purpose of the State Committee will be the development and implementation of the state policy in this sector.
"The main task of the Committee will be to increase the competitiveness of Armenia as a tourism destination and the promotion of Armenian tourist products at international markets, as well as formation of competitive and alternative tourism results, increasing tourist diversity and ensuring continuous improvement of the quality of services", - said Karayan.
According to him, the new structure will develop the national strategy in the field of tourism and ensure its implementation, to conduct necessary studies and analyses, help strengthen international cooperation, create a favorable environment for attracting foreign investment in this sector.
According to official statistics, Armenia has been registering an annual 10% growth of tourism, with the exception of last year's decline of 1%, which was caused by the drop in the number of Russian tourists visiting Armenia because of difficult economic situation in that country.
The government expects that at least 1.4 million foreign tourists will have visited Armenia this year. This year the government has released 189 million drams to support tourism development projects.
Armenia was ranked 89th in the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report for 2015, published by World Economic Forum. Armenia was 38th in terms of safety, 48th – in terms of health level, 71st in terms of human resources quality and 77th in terms of price affordability. -0-