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 “Although tourism does not bring much money to our country, we are losing Yerevan’s face, which  we are selling to the tourists”, said Nune Manukyan, the director of “Areni Festival” foundation during a press conference organized by the Media Center.

Manukyan stated that in October they applied to the Municipality regarding the issue of destroying the buildings in Pushkin-Abovyan-Aram streets. “Approximately 80 tour operators turned to the Municipality in order to find out whether these talks are true. We were told that those buildings will be destroyed and the new multi-functional ones will be constructed”, she said.

Ms. Manukyan noted that it takes only 1-1.5 hour for tour operators to show Yerevan. Thus, tourists leave Yerevan without spending money in the city.

She also mentioned that the wine cellars, which are very important for wine producers, and are located in the above-mentioned are, play a crucial role in the tourism development. “We want Yerevan to have a wine producing map and to be known as a wine city in the world tourism”.

Nune Manukyan stated that the people, who destroy and construct the buildings, should take into consideration the opinion of tour operators and wine producers in order to know whether they would be able to sell new buildings as a product.

“There is no need for such expensive hotels. There is a need to open economy class hotels. For people, who want to construct new buildings, tourism involves only hotels, restaurants and stores. That’s why they design the city in a way they understand it”, she said.

Archeologist Boris Gasparyan noted that preserving monuments is very important for several reasons. “Keeping only the monuments is not enough. The environment of these monuments is also important”.

According to the archeologist, currently, there are several unresolved issues in Yerevan, such as the issue of Dalma gardens. He stated that there are wine scythes of 16-18 centuries in Dalma gardens, which may serve as a tool for tourism development. “If they destroy these monuments, it would be possible to recover them”, said Gasparyan.

Gasparyan mentioned that destroying the building of Pushkin-Abovyan-Aram streets has been planned long ago, and unfortunately that plan does not take into account anything.

He also noted that nowadays, the culture and interest towards archaeology is gradually being developed in our country.

Garush Samvelyan, wine producer stated that tourism is a business which brings equal money to drivers, restaurants and tour organizers.

Hovakim Saghatelyan, head of the “Trinsty” wine producing company is concerned that instead of using our wealth, we are destroying it.

“During March and May, Armenia would be presented as a country of wine in the biggest wine institutions of the US. After trying our wine, people would like to come to Armenia. However, they would see that we have destroyed those cellars”, said Saghatelyan.

He also informed that with a group of wine producers they have applied to municipality for resolving this problem three days ago and are waiting for an answer.

In the end of the meeting, Nune Manukyan stated that for preserving ancient monuments some money is needed. And later, these monuments will bring more tourists than the existing dead streets. 

“I saw the “Old Yerevan” project and I am afraid of it. It reminds me the stores under one roof of Bangladesh market. Who said that it will be interesting? It would be like a passage. It is not the old Yerevan. They say that they will not destroy, but it is not true. They have already destroyed 30 historical buildings”, said the director of “Areni Festival” foundation.