Internationally Acclaimed Summer School Launched in Armenia

October 18, 2019

Yerevan, 18 October 2019 – Today an internationally acclaimed high-level event - ‘’Summer School in Leadership and Governance for Sustainable Tourism’’ was launched in Yerevan.

Summer School is a result of joint collaboration between UNDP “Integrated Rural Tourism Development” project, Project Management for Sustainable Development, the Foundation for European Sustainable Tourism (FEST) and the European Travel Commission (ETC), Aurora Forum and State Committee for Tourism of the RA Ministry of Economy.

The opening ceremony was attended by Tigran Khachatryan, Minister of Economy, Vache Terteryan, Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, Dmitry Stepanov, Counselor of the Embassy of the Russian Federation to Armenia, Dmitry Mariyasin, UNDP Resident Representative in Armenia, Susanna Safaryan, Chairperson of the State Committee for Tourism, Ministry of Economy of Armenia.

The Summer School will take place in two cities: Yerevan and Dilijan, from the 18th to the 21st of October.  During the two days of trainings participants will discuss topics like sustainability, best tourism practices, branding, digital innovation and other related subjects. They will also have guest speakers and time for networking. On the last day they will have a sight visit to Tatev Monastery, Syunik region.

‘This is a very important day for us, as it is the first time that Armenia hosts this internationally acclaimed summer school. I hope that this will only be the beginning and we will continue to organize and host events and initiatives that will boost tourism development in Armenia,” said Tigran Khachatryan, Minister of Economy of Armenia.

“I am sure, that during these days international experts and participants will socialize, share their knowledge and skills and have a productive outcome and new ideas for future touristic destinations,” added Vache Terteryan, Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of Armenia.

“Term education has variety of interpretations nowadays and one of the most important components is that students use their hypothetical knowledge in practice, and this school comes to give young professionals opportunity to experiment, fail and finally succeed,” said Dmitry Stepanov, Counselor of the Embassy of the Russian Federation to Armenia.

“I am very happy that UNDP in Armenia is a part of this very important initiative. I am sure this school will be beneficial for both participants and our international guests, as they can discover new touristic opportunities and unveil the potential Armenia has,” said Dmitry Mariyasin, UNDP Resident Representative in Armenia.

“Tourism development requires not only infrastructure development and visibility increase, but it is also a constant learning process in order to be relevant and trendy in the field. Therefore, we encourage initiatives like this as the exchange of skills and knowledge will generate new innovative ideas for tourism development,” said Susanna Safaryan, Chairperson of the State Committee for Tourism, Ministry of Economy of Armenia.

The IRTD project offers an intervention strategy for the development of rural tourism in Armenia with the objective of creating sustainable income-generating opportunities as supplemental income source to bring down the level of rural poverty, contribute to equal territorial development and shape conducive environment for rural development. The concept applies integrated approach targeting strong local social networks that explicitly link local actors for the purpose of jointly promoting and maintaining the economic, social, cultural, natural, and human resources of the localities.