YEREVAN, JUNE 11, ARMENPRESS. Many countries around the world, including Armenia, the borders of which are currently closed due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, are taking steps to develop the domestic tourism. Many tourism cities are now ready to properly host their guests.

During the first days of the state of emergency Armenia was sending coronavirus infected patients also to hotels in addition to hospitals. But recently the government made a decision to send asymptomatic patients to their homes rather than to hospitals or hotels.            

Chairwoman of the Tourism Committee Susanna Safaryan told Armenpress that they are preparing information guidelines for safe organization of tourism in close partnership with the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as by studying the best international practice and the recommendations by different international organizations.   

“These guidelines will be provided to tourism businesses, including the hotels. At the same time, an online training will be organized in cooperation with several partners and beneficiary state bodies aimed at raising the capacities of entities providing tourism services”, she said.

Mayor of Tsaghkadzor resort town Artur Harutyunyan stated that the hotels which recently received coronavirus cases, both suspected and confirmed, have been completely disinfected and are ready to host the local tourists.

“All hotels in Tsaghkadzor have been disinfected, all the necessary measures have been taken in order to accept tourists. The Municipality together with the Police carries out daily control in the town, in restaurants, the ropeway in order to avoid overcrowdings. Most of the visits to the town take place on weekends”, he said, adding that no coronavirus cases have been detected in the town at this period.

Mayor of Jermuk, another resort town in Armenia, Vardan Hovhannisyan noted that they are fully ready to host their visitors.

“We are operating normally, we just enhanced the control a little bit. All resorts and hotels in Jermuk have been disinfected and are ready to host tourists. We already had a flow of visitors during the May holidays. Now as well we have tourists both in the hotels and resorts”, he said, adding that all resorts and hotels have face masks and disinfectants. The Mayor said both the Municipality and the Police carry out control, keep order.

“At the moment we need to work on developing the domestic tourism. There were many local tourists in the town on June 7”, he added.

No coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Jermuk town so far.

Mayor of Gyumri, the second largest city of Armenia, Samvel Balasanyan said they have disinfected the streets, the bus stations, the benches and bins in the city.

“The hotels in the city have been disinfected by the private sector and are ready to host their visitors, but at this moment there is no major flow of tourists in Gyumri”, the Mayor said.

He said the Municipality constantly urges citizens and tourists to keep all the safety rules to prevent the spread of the virus, always wear face masks, gloves, regularly wash hands, keep a social distance and avoid mass gatherings.

Interview by Lilit Demuryan

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan