Armenia occupied 74th place in World Tourism Competitiveness

[Dabaghian Diana]

Mediamax Agency, Armenia
March 2 2007

Armenia occupied the 74th place in the rating of the World Tourism
Competitiveness

Yerevan, March 2 /Mediamax/. Armenia occupied the 74th place in the
rating of the World Tourism Competitiveness, which was prepared by
the World Economic Forum (WEF).

As Mediamax was told in the `Economy and Values' Research Center,
which performs the duty of WEF's partner in Armenia, all in all there
are 124 countries presented in the rating.

>From the CIS states, Armenia gave place to Georgia (66) and Russia
(68). Azerbaijan occupied the 75th place.

The tourism competitiveness of the states was being assessed based on
three basic indices: 1. the sphere of tourism regulation, 2. the
tourism business-sphere and infrastructure, 3. human, cultural and
natural resources.

According to the indices of the business-sphere and the
infrastructure, Armenia occupied the 96th place. As to the indices of
regulation and human, cultural and natural resources Armenia,
correspondingly, occupied the 65th and the 62nd places.

Among the basic shortcomings of Armenia the authors named the
following ones:

- The visa procedures with the countries, the representatives of
which travel most (Germany, Italy);
- Environment protection;
- Domestic transport infrastructure, the air connection with other
countries;
- The infrastructure in the sphere of air transport;
- The agreements on two-sided air communication;
- The absence of well-known international companies for car rent;
- The infrastructure of the cash machines for VISA plastic cards;
- The availability of hotel rooms;
- The effective level of marketing and branding;
- The use of internet in business.