On the opposite shore of Lake Sevan, a team prepares a small rigged candle while shouting orders in German.A grey gentleman with curly hair, dressed in trimmed Chinese trousers and skated ankle boots, walks carefree on the beach to receive them.as he presents himself, once the head coach of the Armenian Olympic sailing team.He now owns Armenian Camp, a modest and elegant beach hotel consisting of several unpretentious cabins along a stretch of unspoilt coastline and, in Samvel’s words, “the largest collection of non-public vessels on Lake Sevan.”
Sometimes he still teaches sailing. Lesson of the day: how to display a giant candle well.Its students, basically members of the embassies of Germany and Switzerland, expect to download their certificate of navigation until the end of summer.
Since the opening of the Armenian camp in 2012, the station occupancy rate has been exponentially higher in both a year, with visitors coming basically from and staying for a week or two.foreign tourism resources have suddenly been depleted. Samvel says the hotel continues to book ebooks to visitors, but its provenance and length of stay have changed. Although both are virtually abandoned on both days of the week, it is temporarily filled on Friday nights, while Yerevantsis and the few remaining expats from Armenia flock to the hotel fleeing the summer heat in the capital.
In pronouncing the extension of restrictions in mid-August, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan expressed the sadness of Armenian jet-set hikers and tour operators welcoming incoming visitors, suggesting instead that they seize the opportunity to “explore their own country.”.» Armenians seem to have taken this recommendation seriously.The National Tourism Board reports that hotel occupancy rates across the country have increased, particularly after the strict era of closure that ended in early May.
But for the Armenian tourism industry, which was prepared for what was going to be a record year before the pandemic occurred, an early reorientation towards the domestic market would possibly be less difficult to say than to do.They have to deal with expectations, tastes and expenses, behavior that are markedly different from local tourists. If a foreign tourist can also spend an average of $880 on a single holiday in Armenia, a domestic tourist can also spend less than a portion of that amount.but the economic domino effect of such spending The hole is further amplified through other behaviors.In addition to the shorter remains, as the maximum number of tourists continues to paint during the week, Armenians’ preference for all-inclusive resorts generates an asymmetrical distribution of expenses, favoring giant hotel chains.sponsorship of foreign “cultural tourists” in search of original experiences, has noticed a sharp drop in reserves this year.
But those whose livelihoods are more connected to the tourism industry have also felt the impact. Drivers, craftsmen, restaurateurs and holiday rental operators whose careers have sprung up to satisfy a growing influx of foreign tourists cannot easily rotate their business models.because domestic holidaymakers sometimes own their own cars and have little need for “Armenia” refrigerator magnets.
But the presence of tents along the coast in Samvel’s status quo suggests that the appeal of expensive all-inclusive hotel style is not shared by everyone.Indeed, at the heart of the Prime Minister’s suggestion, several organizations have emerged in the hope of spreading interest in outdoor recreation among the children of an increasingly urbanized society.
Artag Kosian lives on the coast from where Samvel teaches sailing. As he unloaded the camping apparatus from his X-Terra, the HIKEArmenia CEO said his organization was preparing for a flood of foreign reserves for hiking expeditions this summer, almost all of them. that were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “The HIKEArmenia team has focused much of their attention on local tourism and selling hiking culture in Armenia,” says Kosian, “[Due to the pandemic], there is this global trend this summer to explore your own backyard. , and we are looking to do our component to help Armenians do it.
Kosian and his team redirected much of HIKEArmenia’s reach and data resources on social media to local Armenians, many of whom were looking for hiking for the first time.They have introduced Armenian versions of their site as well as their track search app.His videos now come with Subtitles in Armenian and Russian.One of his top artistic projects is to partner with local actress/influencer Ani Khachikyan for “Return to Nature”, a viral video that invites Armenians to explore its interior.
And it turns out to be working. Its site has been seen through some 4,000 exclusive visitors from Armenia in the last 90 days, while the hiking app has recorded a 100 percent increase in downloads during the same period, almost all of Armenia.
Armenians are also finding several other activities this summer. Local social networks are full of images of young Armenians looking for rafting, kayaking, horseback riding, climbing, mountain biking and camping. Full clubs have also been built around more non-easy recreational activities such as off-road and surfing.
Ana Yan is part of a new generation of young Armenians who are charting the path to the rediscovery of the interior of Armenia.Returning from a holiday in Sri Lanka, she and some friends began walking and camping before founding Trispers, an adventure club that supplies professional recommendation and instructors to other millennials who are taking their first steps outdoors.For Yan, the positive aspect of the global pandemic manifests itself in the form of greater interest in the nature of Armenia by the general public., whom he describes as a non-unusual archetype of city dwellers, had brought his six-year-old son on one of his last vacations.”We are very pleased to see other people wandering around and finding new places,” he says.With other people spending so much time inside the lockdown, going back to nature is not only fashionable, it’s a necessity.”
While the blockade would possibly have provided an exclusive opportunity for Armenians to rediscover their surroundings, most are eager to share the first problems of Armenia’s trails and camps with foreign visitors next season.