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Tourism sector of Nagorno Karabakh Republic has seen a tremendous rise over the past years and has become a part of the international tourism community, Artak Grigoryan, the assistant to the head of NKR Department of Tourism, said in an interview to Artsakhpress.am.

The number of the foreign visitors of the country was growing 40% on the average yearly in 2007-2013. The tourists – citizens of Armenia are not included in this statistics. If during the Soviet times only 4 hotels operated in NKR, today there are 42 comfortable hotels across the territory meeting the international standards. There are also 23 recreation areas organised in various picturesque corners of Artsakh, Grigoryan notes.

According to Grigoryan, tourism is a significant source of income for NKR. In 2014 alone tourists spent $6.4 millions in Artsakh according to official data. Travel business is quite attractive for investments in Artsakh: the legislation is totally established; the investors can enjoy privileges in taxation.

“It is worth mentioning that Artsakh maintains a serious tourism potential; and marketing and infrastructure complex projects are carried out to develop its competitiveness highlighting the attractiveness of NKR for the tourists,” Grigoryan says.

It is also noted that over the past 10 years NKR has taken part in a number of international tourism exhibitions in Berlin, London, Moscow, Paris, Milan, Madrid and other European cities. The partners are provided with all the necessary information and advertising products about Artsakh during the exhibitions. The Department is also actively engaged in online platforms. Particularly, there is the site Karabakh Travel  and pages  in social network.

Commenting on Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hikmet Hajiyev’s statement about alleged problems with the security of the tourists visiting NKR, Grigoryan assured that the security of every tourist visiting NKR has been guaranteed and ensured at high level since gaining independence. He called the statement of the Azerbaijani side as “disinformation”.

“The so-called ‘black list’ of the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan violates the fundamental human right of access to information, stated in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This also comes as a violation of the right of freedom of movement. Moreover, that ‘black list’ violates the international norms for ethics in tourism,” NKR government representative stressed.