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"In general, the tourism industry has come to a standstill; all the companies that are not involved in domestic tourism have stopped operating," Mekhak Apresyan, President of the Armenian Tourism Federation, told a news conference on Wednesday, presenting the problems that emerged in the sector due to the coronavirus pandemic and the 2020 Artsakh war.

Apresyan says many companies are trying to continue their activities and preserve the jobs, adding despite the assistance provided by the government through the coronavirus relief program, more efforts are needed to save the tourism sector in the country.

He called for elaboration and adoption of a new program to neutralize the coronavirus and post-war impacts on tourism.

Referring to the statistics, the president of the federation said that according to the UN World Tourism Organization, international tourist arrivals fell by 72% over the first ten months of 2020 due to the pandemic, with global destinations receiving 900 million fewer international tourists than in the same period in 2019.

Apresyan assumed that the number may reach 1 billion for the entire year.

He said Armenia’s tourist arrivals dropped by around 77% in January-September last year from the same months of 2019.

"Some 320,000 inbound tourist visits were recorded," the Armenian Tourism Federation head said, adding that outbound trips also fell by 78.2%.

Also, domestic tourism saw a 33% decline in the first nine months of 2020. In particular, according to Apresyan, 934,000 domestic tourist visits were made across Armenia in the period against 1,405,000 visits recorded in January-September 2019.