YEREVAN. - Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan on Monday received members of the Union of Incoming Tour Operators of Armenia (UITO) and representatives of tourism agencies.

At the meeting, issues related to the development of tourism sphere were discussed. Apart from this, reference was made to raising the recognizability of the country, presentation of the Armenian tourism results abroad, as well as decentralization of tourism and international flights. 

President of the UITO, Ara Petrosyan, for his part, noted that the Armenian tourism companies take part in different exhibitions, which aim to present the tourism capacities and attractiveness of Armenia in the best way possible. In Petrosyan’s words, the tourism services rendered in Armenia—hotel, public food, transport, etc.—are competitive and thus work should be carried out towards attracting airlines operating at affordable tariffs. It was also noted that a serious growth of corporative business has been recently observed from Russia.

Touching on raising the recognizability of Armenia and development of inbound tourism, the PM urged the tour operators to submit a precise program, which will indicate the functions of the public and private sector.

Karapetyan also underscored the importance of drawing up regional tour packages and forming regional tourism market, adding that the issue of consistent development of the sphere has been set before the General Department of Armenian Civil Aviation. In his words, currently, work is underway towards attracting new international, including budget airlines.

At the meeting, the tour operators also raised the issues of VAT introduction and licensing of tourism agencies.