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KARABAKH REPORTS FURTHER GROWTH IN TOURISM
14:54 21/08/2013 " SOCIETY
The number of foreign tourists visiting Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is
continuing to increase rapidly after substantial growth recorded in
recent years, Karabakh authorities have said, according to Asbarez.com.
Official figures released by the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic's Tourism
Department show a doubling of visitors in the first quarter of
this year.
According to the department, some 16,000 tourists from 86 nations
visited Karabakh last year, up by 40 percent from 2011. They spent
an estimated $6 million on accommodation, food and services.
These figures do not include residents of Armenia, who also appear
to be traveling to Karabakh in larger numbers these days.
The authorities in Stepanakert had reported similar annual growth since
2007 when the official number of non-Armenian tourists stood at around
5,000. The tourism sector's expansion is evidenced by the emergence of
new hotels and guesthouses not only in Stepanakert but also in Shushi.
Sergey Shahverdian, the head of the Tourism Department, said the
growing influx shows that the NKR leadership is succeeding in promoting
the once war-ravaged disputed territory as a tourist destination
despite Azerbaijani obstruction.
"The state is implementing a coordinated policy on tourism," he told
RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). "That includes forming a
favorable image of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic in targeted tourist
markets through special brochures and promotional articles in various
authoritative publications."
"The other direction of our efforts is to create more comfortable
conditions for visiting tourists," Shahverdian said. That means not
only upgrading the local tourism infrastructure but also exposing
foreigners to more historical sites in Karabakh, he said.
Karabakh's main tourist attractions are mountainous scenery, medieval
Armenian monasteries as well as a cave complex thought to be the site
of one of the most ancient proto-human habitations in Eurasia. They
are located several dozen kilometers away from the heavily militarized
"line of contact" separating Karabakh and Azerbaijani armies.
"I thought that Karabakh is a small place like a village, but this
place is much bigger. I didn't expect to see so much natural beauty
here," one tourist, an Armenian man from Kuwait, said as he spent
time in a Stepanakert cafe with several other Kuwaiti Armenians.
"As you know, Kuwait is a desert country," said one of them. "There
are practically no green areas there. People living there don't see
so much greenery and so many mountains."
The Azerbaijani authorities regard private or business trips to
Karabakh not authorized by them. More than 300 foreign dignitaries and
ordinary visitors have been declared personae non gratae in Azerbaijan
for ignoring these warnings. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry released
their updated blacklist earlier this month.
Source: Panorama.am
14:54 21/08/2013 " SOCIETY
The number of foreign tourists visiting Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is
continuing to increase rapidly after substantial growth recorded in
recent years, Karabakh authorities have said, according to Asbarez.com.
Official figures released by the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic's Tourism
Department show a doubling of visitors in the first quarter of
this year.
According to the department, some 16,000 tourists from 86 nations
visited Karabakh last year, up by 40 percent from 2011. They spent
an estimated $6 million on accommodation, food and services.
These figures do not include residents of Armenia, who also appear
to be traveling to Karabakh in larger numbers these days.
The authorities in Stepanakert had reported similar annual growth since
2007 when the official number of non-Armenian tourists stood at around
5,000. The tourism sector's expansion is evidenced by the emergence of
new hotels and guesthouses not only in Stepanakert but also in Shushi.
Sergey Shahverdian, the head of the Tourism Department, said the
growing influx shows that the NKR leadership is succeeding in promoting
the once war-ravaged disputed territory as a tourist destination
despite Azerbaijani obstruction.
"The state is implementing a coordinated policy on tourism," he told
RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). "That includes forming a
favorable image of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic in targeted tourist
markets through special brochures and promotional articles in various
authoritative publications."
"The other direction of our efforts is to create more comfortable
conditions for visiting tourists," Shahverdian said. That means not
only upgrading the local tourism infrastructure but also exposing
foreigners to more historical sites in Karabakh, he said.
Karabakh's main tourist attractions are mountainous scenery, medieval
Armenian monasteries as well as a cave complex thought to be the site
of one of the most ancient proto-human habitations in Eurasia. They
are located several dozen kilometers away from the heavily militarized
"line of contact" separating Karabakh and Azerbaijani armies.
"I thought that Karabakh is a small place like a village, but this
place is much bigger. I didn't expect to see so much natural beauty
here," one tourist, an Armenian man from Kuwait, said as he spent
time in a Stepanakert cafe with several other Kuwaiti Armenians.
"As you know, Kuwait is a desert country," said one of them. "There
are practically no green areas there. People living there don't see
so much greenery and so many mountains."
The Azerbaijani authorities regard private or business trips to
Karabakh not authorized by them. More than 300 foreign dignitaries and
ordinary visitors have been declared personae non gratae in Azerbaijan
for ignoring these warnings. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry released
their updated blacklist earlier this month.
Source: Panorama.am