The director of the South Caucasian railways Shevket Shaydulin two days ago rejoiced our citizens, who are planning to spend their summer holidays on Georgian Beaches.
First this year it will be possible to go to Georgia by train a month earlier – starting from June 15. The second good news is that passenger transportation will be done in a daily mode and in a foreign company train. “I would specially like to highlight that we have curtailed the travelling time of Yerevan-Batumi for an hour. If last year the travel by train from Yerevan to Batumi was 18 hours now it is 17 hours,” mentioned Shaydulin. Besides the abovementioned train twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays, from Yerevan the regular commercial train will depart, the duration of which will be 19 hours but it will be possible to buy the tickets at 10% cheaper. The tariffs have not changed. The fare for children below 5 is free of charge. For children of the age 5-15 there is a 40% discount. However, in the words of Shaydulin the system of the acquiring tickets has been modernized and instead of the previous lines it will be possible to get the tickets within 2 minutes. In a word, the ones, who are planning to leave for Georgia, have a lot to be happy about. But the Georgians have no less reason to feel happy about because their tourism develops as a result. “According to official results last year about 80 thousand citizens have left for Georgian beaches. And 40 thousand of them have left via our transportation. We have a serious objective – transport 70 thousand citizens to Batumi. And we are undertaking certain steps to achieve this goal,” said Shaydulin. 80 thousand tourists are not too bad but the Georgian authorities are claiming other numbers. One of the Georgian websites mentioned that last year 479 tourists have visited Georgia. At one occasion the Georgian President Mikhail Sahakashvili has also mentioned this number. By comparing this number with the official statistics it seems a little impossible. According to the data of the Armenian official statistics during the previous year from Armenia 640 thousand citizens have left for the purpose of tourism. It turns out that 5 of every 7 tourists preferred to rest in neighboring Georgia. Even if this 479 thousand is exaggerated twice, nonetheless this is not a small number. Indeed, there is nothing bad that our citizens have the means to go for a rest and even if they go to Georgia. Only the comparison gives us a reason for sadness. How many tourists are we annually hosting? According to the results of the NSS during the previous year 684 thousand people visited Armenia for tourism. And now let’s compare it with Georgia. Last year this country had 1 million 863 thousand people and 78% of them was due to the tourists from Armenia, Turkey and Azerbaijan. Even from a not-friendly country Russia 158 thousand people visited Georgia. And the number of tourists in Ajaria is 900 thousand. If we take into account that each tourist spends 1000 USD in average then we can say that Georgia annually receives 1.8 billion USD. As a result of visit of only Armenian tourists this country gains millions of dollars. And in Kobuleti they are building a new hotel. Now let’s compare these numbers with Armenia, which has a multi-million Diaspora, thousands of projects, bylaws, charters and inclines to become a regional center of tourism. “There are big goals to make Armenia a regional tourism center. A series of activities are being conducted in this regard and those still continue,” months ago mentioned the head of the tourism department of the ministry of economy Mekhak Apresyan. But in the sector of tourism we evidently recede to Georgia and Azerbaijan. The World Economic Forum annually releases the rating of tourism for each country. In the rating of 2011 Armenia occupied the 90th place among 140 countries. Azerbaijan occupied the 83rd place and Georgia – 73rd.
Many people think the difference is the difference of prices and blockade only (difficulties connected with travelling). However, in the mentioned rating we can see that we are competitive and there are points, concerning which we have more expectations. For example, in terms of environment, legislation and application of that legislation we are in the 126th place. In terms of “credibility to police services” we are in the 109th place, and connected with communications, in particular Internet availability we are in the 112th place.
That is the reason why, notwithstanding the beautiful speeches, the tourism is so poor in the country that the visit of 20,000 tourists from Iran annually is a really big occasion.
As for our neighbor Georgia, they are not satisfied with what they have and this year they are expecting to have three times more tourists from Armenia than last year. If we take into account that the above mentioned number is true (479,000), it means that if Georgia’s expectations come true, every second citizen of Armenia will go to Georgia for vacation. Armenians will go to Georgia for vacation only because for the money they will have to pay for customs proceedings if they bring a car from Georgia, they can spend several weeks with at the Black Sea with their families.