ArmeniaInformation
The name of Armenia's tourist information office in Yerevan is ArmeniaInformation. I opened it 4 years ago this month, for a US NGO, in order to hand it over to a semi-Armenian-governmental organization, with funding at the time primarily from the US govt, with some also coming from Vahakn Hovnanian, and imaginary funding coming from the Armenian government. Today I believe funding comes primarily from Vahakn Hovnanian with a bit coming from the Armenian government - but I'm not sure. These are not unusual arrangements in development work, but can be a mouthful to explain. In any case, I don't believe Georgia or Azerbaijan have one yet, so it is really quite impressive - a very nice facility with a very helpful staff and great (also thanks to US govt) website.
The reason I log about it, is for the first time in years I spent an hour in the office today, and was quite impressed to see it in action, and the flow of people from all over the world in there - including Japanese, French, some who I couldn't place and Diasporans from all over. It was really cool... a nice, warm and fuzzy feeling :-)
The reason I log about it, is for the first time in years I spent an hour in the office today, and was quite impressed to see it in action, and the flow of people from all over the world in there - including Japanese, French, some who I couldn't place and Diasporans from all over. It was really cool... a nice, warm and fuzzy feeling :-)
posted by Raffi K. at 5:34 PM
5 Comments:
ArmeniaInfo.am is really quite a nice site. As for tourist information centers, yes, Armenia established one first. I don't know if Georgia has one yet (doubt it even though it was always the regional center for tourism in the soviet era) but Azerbaijan opened one in February this year as part of a $240,000 UNDP project to develop tourism in the country.
See: http://www.aitf.az/en/2006/desc/
According the link above, Azerbaijan attracted 1,350,000 tourists in 2003 but I suspect these figures are inaccurate largely down to the way in which tourism figures are recorded. ie. is someone who passes the border enroute to Turkey recorded as a tourist, someone coming for a conference, someone working on the BTC pipeline etc.
I've tried to find reliable statistics for all three republics but can't find any.
Interestingly, however, a tourism information center was established in the regions of Azerbaijan. Now this is a first and one I hope Armenia will follow.
http://www.un-az.org/undp/news/2005/26-07-2005/26-07-2005_eng.php
Ah so we beat them by 3.5 years, still not shabby. A couple of Tourist Information offices did open in Ijevan and Sisian last year... don't know how (or if) they're faring, or who is in charge of them at this point.
Good news about Ijevan and Sisian and no, it's not shabby at all although I wish the government actually had a properly supported tourism strategy (or does it?).
The site looks great, from what I can remember in September 2004, so did the office.
-Meneshian
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