To promote tourism perspectives in Armenia a workshop on “Tourism in Armenia and Cooperation” took place in Gyumri, on 11-12 June, 2015 at the initiative of Region Rhone-Alpes, France United Cities of France, Armenia Country Group, “Local Democracy Agency” foundation in Gyumri.
The workshop brought together local authorities, tourism operators, Rhone-Alpes region-Armenia cooperation partners, representatives from the French Embassy in Armenia to discuss the main priorities and problems in three thematic issues such as “Hiking and valorization of natural areas”, “Guesthouse development” and “Tourism information and promotion”. The seminar was officially opened by the head of external relations and programs of Gyumri municipality Armen Hovhannsiyan that underlined the importance of tourism promotion for Gyumri as the city really has great potential that should be developed.
Head of Tourism Department of the Ministry of Economics Mekhak Apresyan presented the difficulties in the sphere and the expectation from the seminar.
Ela Horoszko Project Manager and Eastern Partnership Coordinator of European Association for Local Democracy attended the workshop and brought her contribution for the opening session. As Rhone-Alpes region is implementing projects in Armenia since 2007 the seminar summarized the main directions and enabled the possibility how to proceed further. The responsible of cooperation with Armenia and Mediterranean countries Anna Fiorini Beriot from Region Rhone-Alpes stated. “It is clear for us that we will try to promote the development of local tourism working with the citizens of these areas”. The second day of the seminar was followed by a technical work that summarized the results of 3 thematic workshops pointing out the main difficulties and solutions and for the further road mapping. Region Rhone-Alpes is the lead partner of “Local Democracy Agency” foundation in Gyumri and the foundation took the responsibility for all organizational issues for the seminar and this initiative enabled the foundation to become visible among tourism stakeholders and establish further cooperation with communities in Armenia.