Growing Status Of Tourism In Armenia

According to statistics, Armenia shows large travel indices from the latest years, as the flow of tourists to Armenia has incomparably increased. The world greatest wanderlusts tend to see the “wonders” of Armenia, its sights and the modernization of one of the oldest cities in the world, Yerevan.  Thus, this means that there can probably be predicted an obvious estimated tend to tourists’ number growth and development of tourism in Armenia.

Armenia as one the world’s historic tourism destination, evokes great interest in tourists from all over the world. People tend to discover:

• the Armenian History
• Armenian Nature
• the life style of Armenian People

Being one of the oldest countries in the world, Armenia is mentioned in the workd of world-known historians, like:

• Herodotus
• Ksenofon
• Strabo
• Plutarch
• Takitos
• many others who traveled to Armenia for discovering it.

In Middle Ages Armenia was explored by  many well-known people, among them:

• scientists
• historians
• poets
• phisicians

The brightest example for this fact is Marco Polo, who first presented Holy Mount Ararat to Europeans with all its wonders and beauty, which had shocked those explorers coming to Armenia. In the last centuries there had been many popular people who made tours to Armenia and after wrote memorials reminding about your impression to Armenia. Here are  some those people:

• Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, a french botanist and physician
• Jean-Baptiste-Simon Chardin, a french painter
• Dr. Georg Friedrich Parrot, a french scientist
• Otto wilhelm Hermann von Abich, a German mineralogist and geologist,
• Harry Finnis Blosse Lynch
• James Bryce, a British jurist, historian and politician.

During the Soviet period of time a huge tourist flow was formed in Armenia. According to those days’ statistics, nearly 19 000 foreign tourists from 35 countries and 35 000 tourists from Soviet Republics visited Armenia during 4 years in 1980’s. The first tour agency founded in Armenia was caaled SPUTNIK TRAVEL AGENCY, which lied under the same federal organization structure of Soviet Union. During this time lots of hotels and rest houses were constructed in Soviet Armenia among them:

• Armenia Hotel in Yerevan
• Ani Hotel in Yerevan
• Dvin Hotel in Yerevan
• Sevan Hotel on the beach of Lake Sevan
• Youth Hotel Yerevan
• Tsitsernakaberd Hotel Yerevan with Sevan branch
• Yerevan Hotel Nairi
• Erebouni
• Gyumri Hotel Kumayri
• Aparan Hotel Tourist
• Stepanavan hotel Lalvar

A number of various rest houses and hotels are founded in the regional towns:

• Goris
• Dilijan
• Vanadzor
• Ijevan
• Toumanyan
• Kapan

During the Soviet period of time the Armenian Tourism institutions worked to have attracted nearly 85 000 tourists per year. About 40 local tours and nearly 150 bus tour routs were made to attract tourists coming to Armenia.
Therefore, Armenia was one of the unique Soviet Union Republics, capable to host thousands of Armenians from World Diaspora.