YEREVAN. – In an interview with Haykakan Zhamanak daily, Armenian Economy Ministry’s Tourism and Economic Development Department Chief Mekhak Apresyan expressed a hope that the number of Iranian tourists that will visit Armenia this year during their Nowruz (New Year; on Thursday, March 21) holiday will be as much as last year.   

“The tourism agencies, however, forecast a sharp drop—up to ten times—in the number of [Iranian] tourists. A tourism agency informed that these days two buses are crossing the Iran-Armenia border on a daily basis, whereas last year they were ten [buses] on these days.   

Each Iranian that spent the Nowruz holidays in Armenia was spending an average of close to $1,000, and this was having a great impact in terms of preventing the seasonal depreciation of the [Armenian] dram. [But] this beneficial impact will be much smaller this year,” Haykakan Zhamanak writes.