The opportunities of agritourism development in the Republic of Armenia

Abstract

Agritourism is a type of vacation in which hospitality is offered on farms. The article discusses the essence of agritourism, presents some facts about tourism in Armenia. Some data about number of hotels, their employees and revenues, unemployment rate, average monthly wages and agricultural output in regions are discussed. In Armenia the main tours include some activities of agritourism, but there are not specialized agritourism, the number of agritourists and the sum of money they spend on tours are not available by statis- tics. To find out the main issues for agritourism development in Armenia, we have conducted SWOT analysis, which helped to explore strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and determine the strategy of advancement. Our analysis showed that the External factor evaluation and Internal factor evaluation scores were above average 2.5. Placing the weighted scores on SPACE Matrix, we got the best strategy quadrant, which is the aggressive strategy. Based on it some suggestions were made to promote agritourism. The model of agritourism impact on social-economic development was processed. Agritourism promotion is very important for Armenia, as it will contribute to regional economic development, social development, decrease immigration, etc.