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Apressyan says Armenia is ready to welcome winter tourists

Armenia is fully ready for the start of the winter tourism season – destinations declared by the Armenian Government as winter tourism centers are ready for winter with their whole capacity.

Mekhak Apresyan, head of the Tourism and Regional Development Department of the Ministry of Economy of Armenia, said at a press conference Monday that Tsakhkadzor (Kotayk province) and Jermuk (Vayots Dzor province) are ready to welcome winter tourists “only if snow does not let us down, the way it happened last year, when it snowed less than it had been forecast.” (According to a preliminary weather forecast by meteorologists, the coming winter will be snowy; first snowfalls are expected in mid-December).

Apresyan also said that along with alpine skiing routes in Tsakhkadzor and Jermuk, tourists will also be offered a regular skiing route in Gyumri (Shirak province).

According to Apresyan, the world economic crisis has not affected the tourism sector in Armenia yet. On the contrary: whereas in 2008 (from January to September) 399,691 tourists visited Armenia, then the same index for the current year is 422,507 – 5.8 percent more. The number of Armenian tourists who preferred having their vacations abroad also increased: during nine months of 2009, a total of 399,650 tourists (1.2 percent more than for the same period last year) left Armenia.

Among people who prefer spending their vacations in Armenia are holidaymakers from Russia, Georgia, countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Iran, European Union member states, the U.S., as well as Latin American and Scandinavian countries.