YEREVAN (Arka)—The number of foreign tourists visiting Armenia in the first six months of 2016 grew by 2.4% from the year before to 501,000 said Mekhak Apresyan, head of the tourism department at Armenian Ministry of Economy, to a news conference today. Similarly, the number of Armenians traveling abroad as tourists rose by 1.2% to about 470,000 people, he added.
According to him, the bulk of foreigners visiting Armenia as tourists are from Russia, Europe, Iran, Georgia and the United States. He added that the rise in the number of Iranian tourists is significant.
Apresyan specified that that the number of Iranian tourists last year was 24% up from the previous year reaching 144,000 people.
He also noted that his department has developed a marketing program to attract more tourists from Japan, Russia, China and Arab countries.
