YEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. Armenia will host the 67^th meeting of the Commission for Europe of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) this year. The session will take place on June 1-3.

Sisian Boghossian, chair of the Tourism Committee of the Armenian Ministry of Economy, told Armenpress that this year’s topic of the session will be the rural tourism, which they have chosen together with the UN.

“In addition to the UNWTO internal issues, the steps to increasing the role of sustainable tourism development will also be discussed. Every year the meeting is taking place in different countries. The fact that it is held in Yerevan this year for the first time is a great progress and a very important opportunity to present Armenia to the whole world”, the Committee chair said.

Sisian Boghossian said that the session will be attended by the UNWTO Secretary-General, the UNWTO regional director, tourism officials, ministers, media representatives, etc. The representatives of Armenia’s rural tourism will also have a great opportunity to communicate with the session participants. They will have a chance to exchange experience and establish new cooperation.

The UNWTO Secretary-General is expected to meet with Armenia’s President, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister on the sidelines of the session.

Alessandra Priante, UNWTO Regional Director for Europe, said that the main focus of the upcoming session will be on sustainable tourism, therefore, rural tourism is highlighted, and Armenia is the country that has all prerequisites for developing the rural tourism. “Armenia, I would say, is a “hidden treasure”, and has all what Europeans are interested in. The only problem Armenia has is to be more popular. For example, Italy doesn’t have that problem as it is one of the biggest tourism countries, but Armenia has that problem. Armenia has an interesting position in the region and it must present itself better with its beauty”, the UNWTO Regional Director for Europe said.

Alessandra Priante said that this conference is a very good opportunity for Armenia to become more popular and implement new programs.

Alessandra Priante said the tourism figure has significantly declined due to COVID-19, but as a result there is an interesting trend among the people as they have started to better know their own countries. “The second biggest problem during the pandemic was the safety problem, people were afraid, because tourism was that people had to communicate with each other, now everyone is urged to wear face masks and keep a social distance. We now have a big work to do in this direction in order to again inspire trust in people”, Priante said.

Reporting by Gayane Gaboyan

Photos by Mkhitar Khachatryan