YEREVAN. – The airlines’ ticket prices to Armenia are high, US Ambassador to Armenia, John Heffern, stated during a press conference on Friday. 

“If a tourist will have to wait fifteen hours in Vienna for his flight [to Armenia], he will not come here. If you are coming from the United States and you will have to stay at the airport for two nights, you will not come to Armenia. Yes, the [ticket] prices are high, and you cannot consider the services to be great,” Heffern said.      

In his turn, Armenia’s Deputy Economy Minister Ara Petrosyan drew attention to the fact that the travel prices should be viewed in packages. For example, according to Petrosyan, the hotel accommodation prices in Armenia are 10-15-percent cheaper than those of same class hotels in Georgia.

The US ambassador agreed that travel prices should be viewed in packages, but stressed that reforms are needed in the aviation sector.