CC BY
22SOCIAL SCIENCES
CURRENT EXPERIENCE AND ACTUAL ISSUES OF DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM IN THE
REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
Saakyan I.
Chair of theory and history of sociology Yerevan State university Post graduade student
ABSTRACT
This article discusses the development trend of tourism in the world market, the current level of tourism development in Armenia, the main competitive advantages. The main directions that are in demand are given. The tourism potential of Armenia is compared with competing countries, and their strengths and weaknesses are given. The approach of considering tourism from three sides as an economic resource, a risk factor and a sociological phenomenon is used. The tourism analytics in Armenia is presented using these approaches. Finally, several major problems and solutions are identified.
Keywords: sociology of tourism, local communities, tourism development, comparative analysis, resource, risk factor
Introduction
In the world economy, the importance of the service sector has greatly increased over the past decade, which affects the development of the economies of different countries, including the Armenian. Today, tourism is an integral part of the lifestyle of citizens of developed countries. For some countries, revenue from the tourism industry is 60-80% of the total budget. [4, p. 7-8] The very concept of "tourism" reflects many aspects and in the scientific literature there is no single universal definition of this phenomenon. Tourism is an economic phenomenon, the movement of people, and a form of recreation and a means of exploring the cultural and historical heritage. However, each concept of tourism characterizes its separate side.
A distinctive feature of modern tourism is its social orientation. The development of the tourism industry in recent years has been rapid. A person traveling around the world learns new things. The development and enrichment of human intelligence, worldview, and the improvement of spiritual and moral relations become a necessary condition for the reproduction of society. This leads to a restructuring of the mechanisms of sociocultural identification of the individual. The psychological attachment to traditional social-group structures is destroyed, a person breaks away from the team, accompanied not only by the realization of personal freedom and independence, but sometimes by discomfort, longing for the team in which the person was before. [6, p. 311-313] Such a breakdown of the systems of external determination of the life of an individual not only weakens its dependence on the soci-ocultural environment, but also leads to the appearance of reverse lines of determination: the dependence of social structures on the state of the person's soul, his worldview. Each person embarking on a journey seeks to receive positive emotions, relieve stress, restore spiritual and physical strength, learn new things, deepen knowledge about nature, history and culture other countries and peoples. Consequently, a person should be given the opportunity to organize his holidays, to restore strength and health. [3, p. 6-8]
It is also necessary to promote tourism development in order to reduce unemployment, labor migration, strengthen business activity, create a positive tourist image, strengthen the economy, and develop the production of goods and services that directly or indirectly satisfy tourist needs and desires. It is also necessary to involve entrepreneurs in the creation of tourist information centers, the creation of a tourist marketing strategy, etc. [10, p. 15-16]
Presentation of the current state in Armenia The priority of the tourism industry, as a principle of state policy, is fixed in the Law of the Republic of Armenia "On Tourism and Tourism Activities". In recent years, tourism in Armenia has been actively developing. Experts of the international business newspaper "Financial Times" identified Armenia as one of the best 1 tourist destinations in 2020. Many world publications note that today Armenia is a country accessible to any type of tourist, in which you can see ancient history, beautiful nature, delicious cuisine, kind and sympathetic people, etc. [2, p. 2-3] The tourism infrastructure is increasing every year in the country, new hotels, guest houses, SPA centers are being built, extreme types of tourism are being developed, new tourist routes etc. In 2020, companies such as Wizz Air and Ryanair come to the Armenian market, which will also provide an additional flow of tourists.
The country has all the prerequisites for the rapid development. Despite the small size of the state's territory, Armenia is 90% mountainous, each of its regions has its own climatic features, which makes each part of the country more diversified. National history originates in the first millennium BC. The country has a high level of agriculture, so many restaurants and cafes can provide high quality services. Thus, three strong factors of the tourism sector in Armenia can be noted - history, nature and ecology. [1, p. 155-158]
The tourism sector relates to those areas of the economy in the development of infrastructure, which have made significant investments. In recent years, new hotels and restaurants have been built in Armenia, the bus fleet has been replenished with tourist buses that meet international standards. The State Committee on Tourism performs the functions of establishing links
with international markets, attracting investment, improving the tourism environment in the market, etc.
Armenia is rich in historical monuments. As a country that adopted Christianity first as the state religion, many ancient churches can be visited in Armenia. Each of them has its own architectural features, natural landscape and atmosphere. Various temples, fortresses, ruins of ancient structures make the country very attractive for lovers of historical tourism.
If you consider most of the tours that are offered by large travel companies, such as Hyur Service, Yerani Travel, Onewaytour and others, you will notice that the vast majority of offers are based on historical and ecological tourism. Most of the programs take visits to churches, museums, natural attractions and historical sites. Also in some tours you can notice various master classes in which guests learn craftsmanship or cooking dishes from traditional cuisine. In such events, guests get acquainted with local culture and life. It can be concluded that because of the increased demand for such tours, and accordingly, the demand for them is also high, people want to get acquainted with the main attractions first of all, to learn the main history of the people and their cultural features.
The capital of Armenia - Yerevan is a modern city with many hotels, shops, cafes and restaurants. The city which is 2802 years old, makes Yerevan attractive for tourists who are interested in history. It also has many museums, art galleries, thematic exhibitions, cinemas. Other cities, such as Vanadzor, Gyumri, Sisian, Goris, Kapan also have their tourist attractions and infrastructure.
In addition to classic tours, in Armenia there are many other options for spending your time for tourists. There are several resort cities in the country, such as Jermuk, Dilijan and Tsaghkadzor. The first city is famous for its thermal springs and SPA centers, where tourists receive health courses. Dilijan is a balneological city with clean environmental conditions. Tsa-ghkadzor is a ski resort in which high-level pistes and comfortable hotels are located.
Gastronomic tourism is developing in Armenia very fast. Even in Soviet times, the Yerevan brandy factory "Ararat" was famous all over the world, which today continues to produce cognac and arranges excursions in which you can learn the history of the factory and try legendary cognac. Many restaurants and cafes hold various master classes. Extreme tours are starting to gain popularity. In the north of Armenia, the extreme Yell park has attracted thousands of tourists for several years who can try different extreme activities. The country is rich in hiking, horse riding and cycling routes, some travel companies have already begun to offer their customers such tours.
Ecological and rural tours are also considered a developed direction. In many villages there are guest houses in which local families live. In such places you can spend the night, try ecological food, learn cultural features in the form of cooking a national dish, pottery, making carpets, woolen products, playing national instruments, etc. In such details, tourists can approach the rural way of life, since most tourists live in developed cities and do not have all these conditions. [7, p. 15-16]
Recently, wine and cognac tours have been developing, almost all major wine producers have a tourist department, which is engaged in attracting guests to the winery for wine tasting. During the tour, tourists can get acquainted with the production, learn about the history of Armenian winemaking, taste local dishes, arrange a corporate evening and much more. This makes it possible to increase the variety of tours for travel companies to increase demand.
Methods
The purpose of the research is to analyze actual issues in tourism development in the Republic of Armenia.
The object of the research is tourism in Armenia.
The subject of this research is the tourism impact on society and development in Armenia.
The main methods used in the research are as follows: analysis and synthesis, micro and macro analysis, comparative analysis.
In the research a variety of data are used from the National Statistical Service of RA, The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) and other national and international organizations, state organs, medias, etc.
Discussion
The country is not as widely represented in today's tourism market as its other major players in the region. In today's realities, this is a very important factor, since you can have a developed infrastructure, but few will know about it. In some regions there is no infrastructure, comfortable hotels and restaurants, signs.
If we compare Armenia with its closest neighbors, Georgia and Turkey are investing more resources in promoting their countries abroad and, accordingly, are accepting more tourists. The well-known airline Turkish Airlines shoots high-budget advertisement videos that showcase beautiful sights and views of the country and encourage viewers to come and watch them live. These videos are shown on Western television channels for a potential audience that can become potential tourists in the future. Popular stars are attracted to this ad, and it is gaining a lot of views. "GoTurkey" project, which was launched by the Ministry of Tourism, has a great success. The official website of the project has many interesting articles that talk about different regions of the country, their attractions, interesting facts, hotels and restaurants. The Turkish government considers the tourism sector as one of the main directions of economic development, various festivals are held, many signs are placed in tourist places, signs, attention is paid to convenience for guests, etc. To work as a tour guide in Turkey you need to get a special "Professional Guides Card", so every guide is well prepared with history, languages and different cultures.
Today, Armenia has a similar project, which is called "Armenia.travel". It also distributes information about the country, its tourist places, routes, interesting facts, etc. But, unfortunately, it does not have the same quality content as in the previous example. Basically, the articles have scarce information material, analogues of which can be found on other sites, they are not enough, and they do not reveal the full tourism potential of the country. The site is rarely updated, has outdated information and is poorly promoted. Thus, he does not
achieve the desired results. In some social networks, the "Armenia.travel" project has a large audience, but underneath it does not have a practical impact on the real flow of tourists. Moreover, there is no licensing for guides in Armenia.
In Georgia, in the mid-2000s, it was decided at the government level that tourism would be one of the main articles in the country's economy. The government has restored numerous tourist areas, such as the old district of Tbilisi or the city of Sighnaghi, restored many roads, built numerous infrastructures, for example, in the city of Batumi or Gudauri. A large advertising company was also launched, which was aimed at Western markets. Today it has results, since so many people in Western countries know about Georgia as a tourist country, and some have already visited it.
Representatives of the new government of Armenia, which came to power in 2018, often make statements about the development of tourism. [9, p. 78-79] Over the past year, 600 km have been restored in the country. roads, several agreements have been signed to attract new international airlines to the country, several programs have been funded that are related to the development of rural tourism, numerous festivals on various topics have been held, new promotional videos have been shot to attract a new flow of tourists to the country. Despite the positive results, in the future it is necessary to pay attention to better and more detailed promotion of the country, preparation of high-quality photo and video materials about various aspects of life, attractions, culture, cuisine, traditions and holidays. Armenia has all the necessary prerequisites for this, you just need to properly distribute these resources to achieve a better result.
If we consider tourism in Armenia as a complex phenomenon, which must be perceived from three different hypostases: as an economical resource, as a risk factor and as a sociological phenomenon, we can look at the development of tourism in Armenia from a new perspective. Tourism as a resource can bring economic and social development to an area or country which doesn't have any other economical resources. One of the best examples is Ruhr Basin in Germany which has a lot of old and closed factories and most pf them now became tourist attractions. In this case Armenia can go this way making some areas as tourist centers. [8, p. 186-188]
Tourism as a risk factor can bring misunderstanding and miscommunication between locals and tourists. This is materialized by practicing gestures, habits and practices that are not tolerated by the local community. Most of the times these risks appear due to the lack of intercultural communication, lack generated by carelessness or ignorance.[5, p. 62-63] At the moment there is no reason for concern, but perhaps with a strong increase in tourism Armenian rural communities may face a similar problem, as in many villages there is a tourist infrastructure in the form of attractions, guest houses and restaurants.
Tourism as a sociologic phenomenon and a mass phenomenon perspective means that tourism nowadays became available to every country and every social
class. It opened a lot of new ways of tourism which contribute to increased globalization and socialization. The youth started to travel a lot for study, work, volunteer or search of adventure. A tourist destination can become a trend like Greece, Turkey or Egypt. Of course this is a hard way for the development, but youth camps for volunteer can boost another flow in the country.
According to the whole analysis above we can highlight the following problems. The first problem that can be noted in the absence of compulsory licensing of guides. For example, in Israel, the work of a guide can be carried out only after obtaining special permission from the relevant ministry. Special courses take two years, after their completion an exam is held. All who work without a license run the risk of getting a large fine. Thus, many large companies can better and faster find the right guide in a special catalog of licensed guides and not run into scammers. In Armenia, there are many professional guides who speak many languages. However, in recent times there have been more frequent cases when people without special training and knowledge provide low quality guides services at low prices. Negative reviews of travelers, after experience with low-level guides, can negatively affect the country's tourist image.
The second problem is that the State Committee on Tourism does not pay due attention to the promotion of those areas of tourism that are in high demand. On their official website you can see many articles that are dedicated to the history and culture of Armenia. However, it will be difficult to find information on extreme, rural, medical, environmental tours. Many tourists are interested in hiking in the mountains, paragliding, tasting at the winery, parachuting and other activities, information about which is difficult to find on the official tourism website of Armenia. Also, the State Committee on Tourism can develop volunteer and study program for youth in Armenia.
The third problem is that some non-touristic areas like Vanadzor, Alaverdi or other which doesn't have much resources after collapse of Soviet Union, can use tourism as a resource (like Ruhr Basin in Germany). The industrial, ecological hiking tours can be developed. Of course, big changes are impossible without the influence of state support.
Conclusions
Summing up, we can say: countries that comprehensively develop tourism always win in the tourist race. This includes: strong state support on an ongoing basis, a high level of quality education in the field of tourism and the provision of services, public-private partnership on mutually beneficial conditions, marketing of tourism services abroad. Armenia has all the necessary resources in order to become a tourist center of the region, it is necessary to gradually implement the necessary strategies.
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