ArmInfo.Unfortunately, it is impossible to repeat the tourist successes registered by Georgia, relying on Armenian values, Head of Armenian Institute of International and Security Affairs Stepan Safaryan expressed such an opinion to ArmInfo.
"The constant growth of tourism in neighboring Georgia is a natural result of a whole complex of reasons and factors: advertising of the country and most importantly its values, the development of communications, liberal and political freedoms, traditional Georgian hospitality, etc. And it is clear even to me,a person who has no direct relation to the tourism industry, that of all the above, Armenia can boast of hospitality alone, "he said.
According to Safaryan, in the subconsciousness of the citizens of Armenia and Artsakh there are a number of psychological filters and complexes regarding the external and moral character of foreign tourists visiting the Armenian republics. There should be no gay and lesbian, drinking, untidy-dressed and unclean people. Tourists should not be bright and defiantly dressed.
"Accordingly, based on such criteria, we do not want to see Indians, Arabs, Iranians, Russians, and evenEuropeans and Americans in our country. This raises a logical question: Who do we want to see in Armenia and Artsakh? Where can we find such tourists, who will spend money in our countries and at the same time correspond to our ideas about morality ", Safaryan stressed.
Meanwhile, the same successes of Georgia, according to his estimates, besides the economic and communication component, are also due to the absence of the above-mentioned filters in this country's tourist strategy. Similarly, the main tourist centers of the world also "grind" and swallow such a tourist diversity. Meanwhile, in Safaryan's opinion, Armenians still remain an extremely closed nation with a keen sense of their titularity and some peculiarity. Hence, there is a reluctance to put up with the habits and appearance of tourists, inappropriate to Armenian ideas.
"Any mass phenomenon brings with it not only profits and money, but also garbage and other undesirable attendant factors. We must finally understand this. Understand and decide what we want - to develop tourism and the state or to continue to revel in our exclusivity and genetic purity and other, very possibly, wonderful, but completely unclaimed qualities in the modern world, "the analyst concluded.
According to estimates by the National Tourism Administration of Georgia, in 2018, a record number of tourists visited the country - 8.7 million, 4.9% more than a year earlier - 7.5 million people visited Georgia in 2017. The largest number of tourists is 1.4 million from Azerbaijan, the second place is occupied by tourists from the Russian Federation - 1.4 million. It is noteworthy that the third place is occupied by Armenia - 1.3 million tourists. Georgia was also visited by citizens of Turkey, Iran, Ukraine, Israel, Belarus, the United States. According to Prime Minister Mamuki Bakhtadze, Georgia's tourism revenues in 2018 exceeded $ 3 billion. Meanwhile, in 2017 they did not exceed $ 2.7 billion.