Armenia Eyes Indian Tourists

Reema Sisodia - Mumbai

At a recently held meeting in Mumbai, Republic of Armenia represented by Harshad Mehta, honorary consul of the Republic of Armenia in India, expressed its intentions to promote the republic as a tourist destination in India.

The region is looking to actively promote itself as a film shooting destination and the plan is to highlight special attractions of the region amongst the Indian film fraternity. The country aims to position itself as a niche tourism destination and it wants to tap honeymooners and FIT clients from India. It is projecting its USP as the historical landmarks and natural attractions like water resorts of Lake Sevan among others, which is considered as the second largest sweet water lake in the world.

Mehta says, "Armenia is also a land that has exclusive health spas, which can also be an attraction for the Indian clientele. There has been business contacts between India and Armenia in the area of IT, engineering agriculture, science and technology, etc and we now plan to build contacts in the area of tourism. Student traffic from India into Armenia has also taken place."

There are plans to conduct road shows in the future in the country in a few Indian cities and a tourism delegation from Armenia is also scheduled to visit the country in 2006. The best season to visit Armenia is from March to October and flights are available from New Delhi to Yerevan twice a week. One can also reach the country via Dubai. The visa procedure is through on-line registration only through the Embassy based in New Delhi.