"Fact" daily writes:
The other day, Economy Minister Gevorg Papoyan announced that the flow of tourists from Russia to Armenia decreased in 2024... due to opposition protests.
"I don't want to dramatize it, but tourist operators canceled thousands of visits in April and May. I think a large number of tourists did not come to Armenia because of the rallies organized in Yerevan, especially when some Russian TV channels announced rallies with the participation of up to 200,000 people," he said. he
The fact that the number of tourists has decreased is not news. it can be seen both with the naked eye and with statistical data.
But in order to connect it with the opposition rallies, you have to at least have an extremely big imagination. In other words, instead of understanding the real reasons, people have decided to engage in typical hypocrisy, "appointing" others, other phenomena, in this case, the rallies.
Rallies have always happened in Armenia, and they happen in any country, even in neighboring Georgia, but tourism is not affected. In fact, there are too many reasons for the decrease in tourist flows, including the incompetence of the same masked government.
At the same time, experts in the field note that among them there is also a very important reason, about which the authorities are silent. We are talking about the fact that in the spring of this year, the service of transactions with cards of the "MIR" payment system was actually suspended in Armenia.
It creates material problems for tourists coming from Russia, which is a serious reason why many prefer not to visit Armenia, but other countries, with all the consequences.
To what extent the above-mentioned decision was justified or not is another question, but the fact remains that the authorities prefer not to talk about it as a reason.
Back in the spring, many economists warned that the ban on the service of "Mir" cards will lead to an economic crisis in Armenia.
On the other hand, both Armenian and Russian tourism industry experts warned that the Russian audience should be made clear that this is not a deliberate ban against Russians.
Have the authorities, or rather the competent ministry, done something in this direction? Certainly not. Well, it remains to "put your own sins in the pockets" of others.
