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Tigran Baghdasaryan

Extreme Tourism in Armenia: The Potential Exists in this Undiscovered Paradise

By Tigran Baghdasaryan

Looking for adventure? Then look to extreme sports.

Armenia has great potential for developing the sector – its multitude of natural environments.

It’s estimated that 10% of global tourists now engage in various risk taking to make their vacations even more interesting and memorable.

The route up Mount Hua in China has been named as one of the most dangerous hikes in the world. The wooden planks people must walk are no wider than forty centimeters.

Zorbing is the recreation or sport of rolling downhill inside an orb, generally made of transparent plastic. The challenge is to maneuver the orb without crashing.

All it would take in Armenia, I believe, for extreme sports to take off would be some government assistance and initiative.

There are many sites in Armenia appropriate for mountain tourism. Armenia’s geography lends itself fully to hiking, probably the most widespread of the mountain sports. The Armenian Mountaineering and Hiking Federation, founded in 2010, can really contribute to the development of the sector.

The Arm Geo club, coordinated by Tigran Shahbazyan, is well-known for organizing hiking expeditions.

Lake Sevan and environs can serve as a great center for a variety of extreme sports. The same can be said of Armenia’s caves. These inaccessible caves can attract thousands of tourists if properly marketed.

Armenia’s fundamental challenge, again, is drafting a proper business plan. The infrastructure doesn’t have to be in the best condition.

Gor Hovhannisyan: Founder of Extreme Tourism Armenian Club and Guide

I believe that there must be a governmental approach for system-wide changes and to train real professionals in the sector. There can’t be amateur guides or non-professional instructors. Lawyers or historians shouldn’t be engaged in tourism. It takes at least one year of serious study and retraining. You can’t take people to so-called national parks that don’t correspond to the standards of a national park. That’s to say places where there is hunting, where you can see traces of logging every 2-3 kilometers, or garbage everywhere.

Safety is the number one concern when it comes to adventure tourism. Armenia, in this respect, is at ground zero. There was an incident where a hiker was injured on Mt. Aragatz and the rescuers arrived wearing pointy dress shoes. They knew nothing about the mountain. In terms of safety, when you’re hiking up in the mountains, you can only rely on friends like yourself who are experienced hikers. I and my friends haven’t seen a rescue helicopter in Armenia at all. But they say the Ministry of Emergency Situations has one.

Without a governmental approach and without serious investment, such tourism in Armenia develops a bit every year. But even in comparison to our weakest competitors, Armenia is falling further back every year in terms of growth.

Armenia has great routes for multiple day hikes, adorned here and there with cave drawings, stone structures, unique little lakes, etc. We have many deep and dangerous caves, and many other caves that haven’t yet been discovered. We also have the potential for off-road tourism, for skiing, and bicycle and motorcycle sports. 

There are no agencies or professionals in Armenia granting international licenses for extreme sports in Armenia. I had to go abroad for my licenses and it was quite expensive. There’s also another bad side to the sector. Tourist agencies in Armenia regard guides with licenses and without licenses as the same. Naturally, they pick the least expensive guides. I have started to work primarily with outside organizations.

Armen Sargsyan: President of Paraplane Federation of Armenia

Armenia has great potential for the development of extreme tourism. I must point out that yearly, the number of tourists interested in our sport her grows. In 2016, with assistance from the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Health, there were world paraplane pre-competitions in Armenia.

We plan to hold world championships in Armenia in 2017. But there is much that has to be done in advance, like having adequate first aid services and ways to evacuate the injured out of the country. This can’t be done without government support.

Tourists who come to Armenia say the country is an undiscovered paradise. All that remains to be done is to clean it up, organize things correctly, and market it properly.

Photos: Narek Aleksanyan, Gor Hovhannisyan, Aram Tovmasyan, Armen Sargsyan, and Wikipedia.

Comments (2)

Maro
Armenia must make more of the fact that it is the first Christian country, both tourism-wise and politically.
haymart
Yes there is potential but the competition is high Georgia had an increase of turists in the past year of 30%, armenia is far behind this. Important points is to offer for any kind of budget something and also do interesting events/thinks for young people. Because nearely nobody want to come to armenia to just see some old churches . Also important is cheap fligth ( maybe to Gumry) and good connection Gyumri airport and Yerevan , Zaxkazor. Currently they are fligths from Budapest or Milan to Georgia (kutaisi) for as low as 10 € (one-way) . For budget travelers having cheap fligth are one of the most important aspect to choose a destination. An other point is prices they should be competitive, because they are already inexpensive places like bulgaria ruminia,georgia. So Armenia has to offer more for less. Currently that's not the case even Hayere go to Batumi instead of Sevan, and everybody told me that prics are lower in georgia and service is much better. So in term of education also they should be something to have better educated people to get better service. And also when counting the numebr of tourists in armenia are they real tourists or just coming to visiting relatives ? Extrem sport yes but there are already a lot of places like this in europe prices are maybe 2 times higher and even in eastern europe you can find nearly the same prices than in armenia,and paraplante you can do it where i live in every corner,its nothing really special. I think it needs an overall improvement in Price/quality and better and cheaper connection to be competitive.

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