Tourism service providers in Armenia are now obligated to inform state agencies about their activities, for which a database has been created in the country. Anahit Mkrtchyan, head of the Tourism Policy Department of the Tourism Committee of Armenia, announced this at a press conference Tuesday.

Mkrtchyan added that that in case of failure to comply with this requirement, the State Revenue Committee of Armenia will conduct an inspection and impose a fine.

"A person may also face imprisonment for violating this law," she noted.

Earlier, the decision to create a database of tourism service providers in Armenia was made at a government Cabinet session.

Mkrtchyan informed that tourism service providers in Armenia can register on the notify.tourism platform, which will be operational starting from October 15, and inform the Tourism Committee about their activities, for which an annual fee of 5,000 to 150,000 drams will be charged, depending on the type of economic activity.

She did not rule out that initially only tour operators and travel agencies will have to notify about their activities, depending on the technical readiness of the platform.

Mkrtchyan added that the tourism service providers in Armenia will not be obliged to submit data that they have previously entered when registering in any other state database.

“In that case, economic entities will be obliged to enter only data that are not in other databases. For example, hotel owners or managers will indicate data on the number of rooms, travel agencies will submit data on the geographical directions to which they take tourists,” said the official of the Tourism Committee of Armenia.

Mkrtchyan added that the new requirements are aimed at increasing the quality of services being provided, the efficiency and transparency of public administration in the tourism sector, as well as the creation of equal competitive conditions in Armenia.