In Armenia, tourist operators are worried about high hotel prices

As stated to journalists by Bekor Papazyan, executive director of the Fund of National Competitiveness, in spite of the growth of the number of tourists visiting Armenia, no progress is observed in the sphere of quality of services and variety of tours. High hotel prices were mentioned by him as one of the problems.

Making comments on the data of the National Statistics Service of Armenia running that in January-June 2010, over 230,000 tourists visited Armenia (against 207,000 in the same period last year), Mr Papazyan said that the funds allocated from the state budget on tourism development make about 100 million drams (1 US dollar is equivalent to 366 drams), which is very small in comparison with other countries.

Robert Minasyan, Chairman of the Union of Domestic Operators, has also emphasized the absence of progress in the sphere of services. "We need to expand the range of services and introduce new services; then people will be ready to pay for them. Prices for hotel rooms "are taken from the ceiling"; therefore, our hotels are full by 25-30 percent. These prices frighten tourists off," he said.

In his turn, Bekor Papazyan referred, touching on the reasons of high hotel prices, to the low demand for rooms in this sphere. According to his version, if the number of tourists coming to Armenia goes up, the number of hotels will also go up; the competition, accordingly, will become stronger; and businessmen will offer competitive prices.