The number of tourists visiting Nagorno-Karabakh Republic growing annually

YEREVAN, March 21. /ARKA/. The number of tourists visiting Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) is  growing annually, an NKR deputy economy minister Sergey Shahverdyan said today, adding that by saying  tourists, he means only foreigners who need a visa to visit NKR. He added that Diaspora Armenians with Republic of Armenia passports as well as citizens of Armenia are not counted as foreign visitors.

According to him, the tourism industry of NKR had posted  around 30-40% annual growth before 2014, when it fell and then again grew by 13% in 2015, when 16,500 foreigners visited NKR. He said a lot more tourists, who do need visas, visit Nagorno-Karabakh. They are citizens of Armenia and Diaspora Armenians.

‘Tourism in Karabakh is developing at a fast pace, as evidenced by indicators of  recent years. However, it is clear  that tourism in Karabakh is part of Armenia's tourism," said Shahverdyan, adding that the pace of development of tourism in the two countries may vary.

"For example, in 2014 the tourism industry in Armenia grew by more than 10%, while in Karabakh  it  decreased, and in 2015 we had  the contrary picture, with tourism figures in Karabakh increasing  and in Armenia falling," said Shahverdyan.

According to the Armenian ministry of economy,  in 2015 the country  was visited by 1.192 million foreign tourists, which was  1% less than in 2014.-0-

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17:32 03/21/2016