By Sara Khojoyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Armenia and Iran are going to sign a memorandum on cooperation in the field of tourism. On Thursday Armenia’s government approved the memorandum that will enable both countries to coordinate and promote 
tourist visits between the two countries as well as international tours to both neighboring countries as a package.
The number of Iranian tourists visiting Armenia had been steadily on the rise for years, but the international sanctions against Tehran somewhat reduced the tourist flow to Armenia from the neighboring country in the past three years.
Head of the Department of Tourism at Armenia’s Ministry of Economy Mekhak Apresyan said that already in the first quarter of 2014 the number of Iranian tourists began to rise again, which is due to the reduction of the scale of sanctions against Iran after Hassan Rouhani’s becoming president of the Islamic Republic.
“Iran is an important market for us. This country is not only our neighbor, but we have good neighborly relations with it, which is important for the sphere. Armenia is more accessible and affordable for them and with this new memorandum we will expand and intensify our cooperation in the sector,” said Apresyan.
Another direction of cooperation, according to the official, is to promote the number of regional tourist visits to Armenia-Iran. “By signing this memorandum we will conduct more intensive work in this direction,” he said.
As part of the memorandum the government plans to put exchange of studies and statistics in the related sphere as well as mutual provision of information materials on Armenia’s and Iran’s historical and cultural heritage, traditions, celebrations, nature, etc on a more coordinated basis.
These activities as well as exchanges of upcoming scheduled tourism events, according to industry representatives, will provide an opportunity for mutual promotion of tourism.
By its rate of development and results tourism is one of Armenia’s most dynamically growing sectors that showed growth even in conditions of the global economic crisis when the country’s economy as a whole registered a double-digit decline.
According to the official statistics, in 2013 more than 950,000 tourists visited Armenia, which is by 13.5 percent more than in 2012.
In the first quarter of 2014, which is not the most intensive period of tourist visits, the growth was even higher. Thus, as compared to January-March 2013, Armenia saw a 20.5-percent increase in the number of tourists (more than 150,000).
“There is the potential, and our policy is aimed at getting ensuring the growth of the number of tourists and revenues from their visits that will also create new jobs and thereby will contribute to the country’s economic growth and sustainable development,” said Apresyan, adding that the tourism development concept envisages bringing the number of tourists annually visiting Armenia to 3 million in the next 30 years.
According to the representative of the Ministry of Economy, 98 percent of those who visit Armenia leave the country satisfied, which is due to the efficient cooperation between the State and the private sector.
Tourism expert, Armenian Institute of Tourism Rector Robert Minasyan believes that tourism development in Armenia is possible only after the creation of a special cadastre. Last month at a meeting with reporters he said that such a structure should identify problems in the field of tourism and offer solutions to them on the basis of research.
“One cannot develop the tourism sector with closed eyes. We need to think about creating a cadastre that will examine the amount of means received by the State from travel agencies,” said Minasyan, according to arka.am.