The Armenian Ministry of Economy, the National Statistical Service, the National Competitiveness Foundation of Armenia, the USAID Enterprise Development and Market Competitiveness Project (EDMC) and the GIZ Private Sector Development in South Caucasus Program signed a Letter of Intent on December 21, 2012 which marked the launch of a full-year tourism survey in Armenia.
This is the second survey held since 2007. It will be conducted from January 1 to December 31 2013 at four border points – Bagratashen, Meghri, Ayrum, and Bavra, as well as entrance points of Gyumri Airport and Yerevan Zvartnots International Airport. The purpose of the survey is to collect a full year of reliable information on passengers arriving to and departing from Armenia.
The collected data will characterize tourists in terms of geographical distribution, purpose of travel, travel patterns, expenditures, and demographics. The final report will present updated information on major market segments, facilitate review of the national tourism strategy, and stimulate development of new tour packages. The report will also help prioritize policies for further growth of the industry and identify possible opportunities to increase sales, revenues, and incomes in the tourism industry. Finally the collected data will be used to compute tourism-relevant economic indicators and serve as a basis for creating a Tourism Satellite Account in Armenia – a statistical framework which measures tourism goods and services according to international classifications in order to facilitate valid comparisons from country to country.
USAID is the major supporter of this initiative through its EDMC project. EDMC supported the development of the survey methodology in summer 2012 and will cover staffing, implementation, analysis and final report publication. The survey will provide stakeholders with the capacity to monitor improvements in the sector and to identify areas where Armenia’s tourism sector requires further assistance. The final report will be published in 2014.
