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HOW IT ARE USED IN ARMENIAN TOURISM

Tourism was declared a priority in Armenia in 2001 when the country was celebrating the 1,700 anniversary of its proclaiming Christianity as state religion. In the following years the number of foreign visitors to Armenia grew by 92%. In January 2001 the US and Armenian governments set up an Armenian Tourism Development Agency (ATDA). In September 2001 sponsored by the International Executive Service Corps ATDA opened "ARMENIANInformation," the first information center in the South Caucasus. Armenia possesses vast cultural and historical treasures but they can hardly make the country a tourist attraction unless given an appropriate information frame. Experts say that to become a developed tourist country Armenia needs a strong information backing. It's here that Armenia's second priority, information technologies, come in helpful. ARMINFO's correspondent has asked ATDA Deputy Executive Director Angela Sax to specify how ITs are used in tourism.

Q: Could you please tell about ATDA?

A: Our key objective is to present Armenia abroad and to shape its image of a developed tourist country. We work in three directions: first, to get involved and to involve other tourist companies in international exhibitions; second, to actively cooperate with foreign journalists and tourist operators; and third, to arrange various events, like the "Kenats" festival, and to ensure their broad coverage in the foreign press. The number of tourists visiting Armenia has redoubled in the last three years. I am not saying that this is our exclusive accomplishment but we have quite a big share in it.

Q: What do you think about ITs' role in the tourism development?

A: ITs are simply indispensable for Armenia, a country almost unknown by the world touristically. It has long become a lifestyle with people abroad to work in the internet. They even grasp the information easier when it is presented electronically. That's why internet-promotion is so important for shaping the country's image.

Quite recently we opened a web-site complying with all the modern standards. Of course, we had some on-line information before but it was rather scanty. The web-site www.armeniainfo.am was sponsored by USAID and technically supported by IESC and the Armenian company T.I.B.. It presents Armenia's sights, cultural and historical values, national parks, art galleries. All this will make the tour unforgettable. The site has merged "high tech" interface with "high art" aesthetics, utilizing both ancient and modern Armenian motifs. From interactive maps of cultural landmarks to a comprehensive and easily accessible database of tour agents, hotels, restaurants, travel agencies and so much more, the ATDA site has become the web's one- stop, on-line, Armenian tourism venue. Much like the ATDA's now famous ARMENIAInformation visitor's information center, at 3 Nalbandyan Street in the heart of Yerevan, the new ATDA website is a virtual, full service concierge facility and an expansive compendium of useful information and resources--whether that be for travelers and tourists or history lovers and the arts literati. Sections are thoughtfully organized with easy access navigation bars; graphics and photos are vibrant and compelling; maps are easy to read and truly interactive, providing details on any given point in Armenia with the click of a mouse. Background information and helpful travel hints are available at every turn; shopping and recreation sites are explored side by side with cultural centers, museums, concert halls and art galleries; Armenia's vast array of architectural monuments and sacred sites are finally presented in such a way that travel planning is almost as fun as the actual visit. The site also provides a thorough and constantly updated calendar of weekly events, available either online or via e-mail subscription. With this new site, the ATDA has really given both the interested traveler and the tourism industry professional--no matter their point of origin--a place on the web to fulfill, as well as provide for every type of Armenian tourism and travel need.

Today we enjoy wide contacts abroad established mainly through international exhibitions. The first question we are always asked is whether we have a web-site. Quite natural as in five minutes we cannot tell everything about ATDA and Armenia while those concerned want to know the most of the country they are going to visit. Nowadays ITs are the most effective and the cheapest way to give information and to keep in touch with people.

Q: What achievements have been made in Armenian tourism in the last years?

A: We have already founded an association for coordinating tourist camps all over Armenia. This is an opportunity for tourists not only to leave Yerevan for the country but also to stay, go shopping and buy services there and thereby to boost the economic development of the regions. Foreign tourist love comfort and road restoration project by the Lincy Foundation came in quite handy. One of our greatest accomplishments is the recent amendment of article 34 of the law On VAT exempting from VAT home tourism as well as the services provided by Armenian travel agencies abroad. This change will make it cheaper for foreigners to come to Armenia. We hope it will cover the hotel business as well.

Q: What can you say about the work of the local travel agencies?

A: All our tour operators are professionals but some of them still keep to the methods of the Soviet times when the key emphasis was laid on historical and cultural values (pageant and Christian cathedrals). But after visiting two-three churches a tourist begins to lose his interest in the country. And so we need new technologies - ethnic tourism and adventure tourism. .

Q: Are there any projects to develop extremal tourism in Armenia?

A: The country has all the natural conditions for developing extremal tourism. But this type of business needs an appropriate infrastructure - hotels, restaurants, services - and this all needs big money. The construction of one ski route is not a way out of the situation. Here we can only advise. The solution is in investments. There are many businessmen who are ready to invest money in Armenia. Why not to spent it on developing extreme?

Q: Drawing parallels between the two Armenian priorities, IT and tourism, what can you say about the attention the government pays to the spheres?

A: I would not separate the spheres as they complement each other. Both of them have big infrastructure problems which though very slowly but are being solved. NOTE: The web site www.armeniainfo.am is designed and developed by TIB on OpenSource technologies which provide robust services, stable work and security. The system makes it possible for the administrator to manage the content of the site quickly and easily. Few interactive sections like Interactive Map of Armenia, Airline Map, and Virtual Tour are created by joint use of Macromedia Flash, PHP and MySQL database server. The web site has a search engine, which makes it possible to make a search within the site as well as from Travel Agencies/Tour Operators' web sites and other Armenian tourism related resources. Developer company (TIB) also took care about the mirror page which is located in the USA and automatically detects the closest server to redirect users making the view of the web site as fast as possible independent from the user's location. The website was developed in UNIX family OS (FreeBSD, Linux, etc.) using web server Apache 1.x and higher. Dynamic pages were scripted in PHP with MySQL database backend. XHTML (also DHTML) was used as a markup language.

By Viacheslav Khachatryan, ARMINFO, 2004 In cooperation with Siliconarmenia.com