True, it’s hotter this year in Armenia than in the past couple of years, but that didn’t make citizens of Armenia stay longer on the coast of Sevan Lake.
On the contrary, this year’s heat drove people to Kabuleti. No matter how illogical it sounds, the resting homes located on that Georgian coast are more suitable than the ones in Sevan.
However, some people claim that Georgians are too lazy to improve conditions in the resting homes on the coast and that they have nothing to worry about due to the fact that the Armenians will come and solve the issues concerning tourism there in the years to come.
Of course, we Armenians are happy to see that Georgians have high hopes, but I fear that as soon as Armenians start construction in Kabuleti, citizens of Armenia will no longer be able to spend their summer vacation there.
What’s going on at the resting homes at Sevan Lake? Nothing really, it’s just that the rents are very high. For example, the daily rent for staying in a two-bedroom apartment at the “Motel” in Sevan is 15,000 AMD (36 dollars), 19,000 AMD (45 dollars) for a three-bedroom, while the rent for staying in a deluxe is 23,000 AMD (55 dollars) a day. Why are prices so high at “Motel”?
The hotel still looks like a “Soviet” hotel. The only new thing is the price. In fact, the people staying at “Motel” say that prices have doubled this year.
The new chief accountant of the hotel, Norik, didn’t agree with the constant vacationers. He says that the hotel’s prices have only gone up by 4,000 AMD because they bought new, high-quality mattress sheets. True, there is a color-TV, refrigerator, bath/shower in the suites, but it’s really not worth spending 40-50 dollars a day based on the entire look of the suite.
After visiting the other resting homes, I realized that “Motel” is not that bad. The “Arevik” coast, which is divided into some parts, has separate owners, there are some newly-constructed shacks, and there is a majority of metal homes moved from the earthquake zone. The daily rent for staying in one of the newly-constructed shacks is 16-20,000 AMD (38-48 dollars).
The shack has two rooms, a television set and a refrigerator. The daily rent for the metal shacks is 8-13,000 AMD (19-31 dollars). There isn’t really much furniture there either. Picture this-they take out the furniture after the summer is over and then bring it back just when summer starts. It’s obvious that none of the vacationers use the mattress sheets there and the beds, tables and chairs are not in good condition.
In order to spend your vacation here, a family of, let’s say, four must also spend 30 dollars a day on food besides the daily rent when the vacationers are the ones preparing their food. Excuse me, but Armenian women don’t really want to prepare food during vacation. It turns out that they simply come to the coast to swim a couple of days and I could see that just by their complaints. They would like for their husbands to cook for them for once. Whoever can spends at least 100 dollars and in the end, you have to spend at least 50 dollars to stay in Sevan and an average of 100-150 dollars.
In the middle of “Motel” and “Arevik”, there is a newly-constructed, Armenian-Czech joint “Bohemian Resort” elegant hotel. I even saw the ad for “Czech airlines” on the card. I assume that the Armenian-Czech part is tied to the Armenians and Czechs working at the Czech airlines. At least that was my impression after talking with the workers.
There are mainly cottage homes at the “Bohemian Resort”. There is a small swimming pool in the yard surrounded by long armchairs. The cottages were fairly clean and had high-quality furniture. It’s “comfortable” compared to the other hotels. This is why the prices at “Bohemian Resort” are rather high-29,000 AMD (69 dollars) for one bedroom, 42,000 AMD (101 dollars) for two bedrooms, and 54,000 AMD (130 dollars) for a three-bedroom, half-deluxe suite. You could rent the entire cottage for 84,000 AMD (200 dollars) for one day. They say the same goes for the “Harsnakar” hotel. So, the price for staying in these hotels for one day ranges from 200 dollars to an unlimited amount.
That’s why Armenians prefer going to Kabuleti. They spend less there and besides that, traveling to Kabuleti is full of surprises and people spend their vacation not to be by the lake, but rather the coast. People spending $400 dollars or more are not attracted by Sevan and prefer traveling to Greece, Cyprus, Anatolia and the quality of service is higher there. They will only come to Sevan for one day and this means that tourism will not develop here.
So, those are the reasons why the resting homes in Sevan are empty. Another thing that hotel owners did wrong this year was raise the rents at the same time. It would be right for them to lower the rents in order to get the people going to Kabuleti to come to Sevan. But Armenian businessmen think differently. They probably want to make investments in one season and force the people going to Georgia through administrative resources-forcing parents to get passports for children. Even when getting the passport you have to go through tons of paperwork. They make it so the traveler refuses to go to Georgia and stays in Sevan. But Armenians can’t force foreigners the same way to come to Armenia and spend their vacation in Sevan, Tsakhkadzor or Jermuk, can they? After all, the people visiting those places complain about the conditions and the incompatibility of prices. Perhaps most of them won’t even come to Armenia next year.