Armenia missed 1.5 million tourists in 2020

YEREVAN, January 13. /ARKA/. The number of foreign tourists visiting Armenia in 2020 slashed by 1.5 million, the head of  the Armenian Tourism Federation Mekhak Apresyan told a news conference on Wednesday.

'Before the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, the whole world was affected by the coronavirus pandemic, and the entire tourism sector, both throughout the world and in Armenia, saw  a significant drop in tourist visits,' Apresyan said .

He cited the International Tourism Organization's  numbers, which say that worldwide,  the number of international tourist visits decreased by 72% (almost 900 million visits) in the first 10 months of 2020 compared to 2019.

“In Armenia, inbound tourism in January-September 2020 was 77.5% lower than in the same period in 2019; a total of 327 thousand foreign tourists were registered, and this figure could reach 350 thousand visits for the whole year,' he said.

He also noted that outbound tourism also decreased by 78.2%, and  domestic tourism also decreased by 33.5% in the first 9 months of 2020.

“The third quarter is usually the most active in terms of domestic tourism, but there was a decrease compared to 2019 with 934 thousand visits only, down from 1.45 million in 2019, ”Apresyan said.

According to Apresyan,  many tourist companies are trying to keep business and jobs afloat; some received government assistance in the framework of programs to combat the economic consequences of the coronavirus, which helped to save jobs, but today the task is to save the sector from complete failure.

“It is necessary to develop a special program for the tourism sector to offset  the economic consequences of the coronavirus and the war in Nagorno-Karabakh,” Apresyan said.

He also suggested that that the 6-month grace period provided to tourist companies to repay government-supported lending is very short  for the travel industry.

Given the war, new problems arose in repaying loans, so Apresyan proposed extending the grace period until at least April 2021.

“Economy Minister's statement that we must work to  achieve double-digit economic growth in 2021 does not look achievable without the tourism sector, therefore, it is necessary to re-estimate the role and importance of this sector and develop a program for its preservation, stimulation and development after the coronavirus and war,” Apresyan said. –0--