COUNTRY: Armenia

CLIENT:
GIZ Private Sector Development and TVET in South Caucasus Programme (PSDTVET SC)

PROJECT TITLE:
Developing Armenia as a Hiking and Ecotourism Destination

SHORT DESCRIPTION

Tourism in Armenia has been a key sector for the Armenian economy since the 1990s and international tourist arrivals in Armenia have been growing steadily, but Armenia´s current tourism offer is mainly targeted at its cultural, religious and historical heritage, while mountain and ecotourism are not yet developed as a tourism product. GIZ’s Private Sector Development and Technical Vocational Education and Training Programme aims at promoting private sector development while paying close attention to employment impacts and the seamless integration of vocational education and training. Tourism is a very labour-intensive economy and job generator, and against this backdrop, GIZ Armenia is supporting Armenia’s tourism stakeholders to improve their competitiveness, supporting cooperation between private and public actors, and seeking to improve the performance of sustainable tourism - especially hiking and ecotourism - in Armenia, thus enhancing employment and labour generation.

The objective of this project was to assess Armenia’s potential as a sustainable hiking and ecotourism destination with a strong cultural background, and to develop a viable, sustainable, strategic concept for planning and developing hiking trails and hiking tourism as a backbone for the development of Armenian ecotourism.

AGEG Tourism for Sustainability Consulting provided the following services:

• Desk-based research on Armenia as a tourism destination and industry related documents and strategies.
• On-site assessment of the destination, including interviews with the most relevant tourism stakeholders
• Participatory workshop and identification of the key players related to hiking tourism
• Elaboration of an illustrated strategy and implementation concept for the development of Armenia as a sustainable hiking and ecotourism destination, including recommendations on:
  
  - Recommendations for innovative ecotourism product development
  - Marketing approach and instruments
  - Vocational trainings and capability building programmes for the local communities
    involved in ecotourism development
  - A national hiking system including standards for trail development,
    signposting and marking