YEREVAN. – In line with official data, 843,300 tourists visited Armenia in 2012, which is 11.3 percent more than in 2011, Deputy Economy Minister Ara Petrosyan said during a press conference on Wednesday.  

In his words, even though global tourism passed the one-billion threshold, it has grown by a mere 4 percent.

“We will exceed the one-million threshold in a minimum of one year, in a maximum of two years,” Petrosyan promised.  

To note, Armenia’s visitors are primarily from Europe, USA, Russia, Japan, and Iran. And Germany, France, and—in recent times—Spain are more active from among the European countries.