17/11/2010 16:40
The number of Iranian tourists to Armenia is doubled
487, 9 thousand tourists visited to Armenia in January-September 2010 which is with 15.6 percent more then in the same period of the previous year, during a news conference today, informed Mekhak Apresyan, the Head of the tourism and territorial economic development department at the RA Ministry of Economy. According to him for the first time the number of tourists visiting Armenia will exceed 600 thousand.
Noting that according to the tourism development concept in 2030 Armenia will reach up to 3 million touristic visits M. Apresyan said he beliefs that “in case of keeping the current dynamics that level will be reached much earlier.”
The head if the department informed that according to the statistics Armenia is mainly visited from Russia and Georgia.
"There are also many visitors from the European Union and the United States. Recently, there are also many visitors from Iran," added the speaker noting that the number of the tourists from Iran have doubled within 9 months of this year.
According to M. Apresyan almost 40 percent of the visitors to Armenia are tourists. He also noted that today it is still difficult to say how much money has been transferred to the state budget from tourism.