More and more Iranian tourists visit Garni temple of Armenia, Armenian Minister of Culture Armen Amiryan told journalists during Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s trip to Garni and Geghard on Saturday.

The area round these monuments is being improved within the framework of the $55 million project of the World Bank (Local Economy and Infrastructure Development Project). These funds will be used to repair the roads leading to these and other monuments, as well as to improve the infrastructure in the other regions of the republic.

Since the beginning of 2017, 37 percent more tourists visited Garni as compared to the same months in 2016, the minister noted, adding that the number of Iranian tourists has increased. It has become easier for them to visit Armenia thanks to the visa waiver between the countries in 2016. The number of Russian tourists has grown as well. Apart from this, the Chinese have also started taking interest in Armenia.

According to Amiryan, here care should be taken to provide tourists accurate information on the Armenian culture and history. The number of Russian tour guides is enough. It is also possible to find Farsi-speaking tour guides, the issue being slightly complicated in case of Chinese-speaking ones.

“We must oversee to it that tourists receive available and verified information. It is necessary to take care of the language issue and careful licensing of tour guides and their texts,” the minister added.