International guide training center to open in Yerevan

YEREVAN, December 11. / ARKA /. Lia Bakhshinyan, the head of the Armenian Guild of Guides and Felicitas Wressnig, the president of the World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations (WFTGA), have signed today an agreement in Yerevan to establish an international training centre of guides in the Armenian capital.

Deputy economy minister Sergey Avetisyan said this is the first such center in the region and only the third in the world.

He thanked the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), the USAID and the Yerevan State University for their contribution to the establishment of the center.

Lia Bakhshinyan said the first two-week training course to start December 11 will be conducted by skilled Armenian coaches. The following course will be held in March next year. In the first stage, according to Bakshinyan, the course will embrace 12 people, six from Yerevan and the regions of Armenia and the other six from other countries.

Felicitas Wressnig said the center will play a very important role in the training of professional guides. It will  operate in close cooperation with the Yerevan State University that will house the courses.

The signing ceremony was attended by Mekhak Apresyan, the head of an economy ministry department in charge of tourism development, Aram Khachaturyan, the executive director of the National Competitiveness Foundation of Armenia, representatives of Yerevan State University, the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Two international training courses for guides were conducted in Armenia in 2012 in cooperation with WFTGA, which has two other centers in Cyprus and Malaysia. -- 0—