YEREVAN. – The events in April—when Azerbaijan had unleashed an unprecedented military aggression against the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR/Artsakh)—had no major adverse effects on inbound tourism. 

Marine Kpryan, director of a travel agency in Armenia, stated the abovementioned at a press conference on Thursday.

“The tourists with the preset tours came on time,” she noted. “There was no rejection.”

In Kpryan’s words, the Russian-Turkish relations also did not have a substantial impact on Armenia’s inbound tourism, since another country with a sea would be an alternative for Russian tourists visiting Turkey.

“Saying, ‘they [i.e. the Russian tourists] are not going to Turkey, let them come to Armenia,’ is far from reality,” the tourism expert added. “We [i.e. Armenia] have a great lack of presenting our products.

“European countries more or less know Armenia as a tourism country. [But] we need to look at the Asian countries, which have very little information from Armenia, and [look] at Russia itself, since although there is now a growth [of Russian tourists visiting Armenia] as compared to years ago, it’s not enough. Considering that Russian tourists don’t have visa, language problems [in Armenia], there can be a several times larger growth.”

Marine Kpryan noted, however, that inbound tourism had declined in the year past.