Tourist Numbers Decline at Lake Sevan for 10 Years, Regardless of Water Blooming: Varazdat Karapetyan

The Chairman of the National Assembly's Permanent Committee on Territorial Administration, Local Self-Government, Agriculture, and Environmental Protection, and MP from the "My Step" faction, Varazdat Karapetyan, made a statement regarding the protest action of entrepreneurs at Lake Sevan.

“A few months ago, the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris was burning. During those two days, there was an inconsolable mourning on Armenian Facebook. People, having left hundreds of ruined monasteries in our country, mourned for a building that, in fact, has little connection with our culture and identity. Of course, universal values are also ours, but our own treasure is also ours,” he noted.

This past week was dubbed ‘Sevan Week’ on Facebook. Everyone was lamenting again—fearing for its blooming and muddy conditions. Alas, still at the same distance from that burning cathedral, without taking it inside, without feeling it in their own hearts and on their skins. This week was indescribably unpleasant on Facebook. Some suggest meaningless plans, others criticize the one-year-old government for problems accumulated over decades, some are crying, while others are taking selfies with a shovel...

“To be fair, there were some who spoke less, but were valuable and acted. Meanwhile, the lake lives its quiet life, becoming dirty, being cleansed, getting sick, and recovering. Last year the condition of the lake was incomparably worse. This year it is recovering sooner, thanks to the water that is not being stolen and given to HPPs and I don’t know whom else,” Karapetyan added.

“One can write a lot about the lake, but now, today, it’s about closing the road. Entrepreneurs are being told that no one is coming to Sevan. The reason is cited: the Ministry of Health announces that swimming in areas with a large concentration of bacteria may harm health. Certainly, it may. That’s why one must swim in clean parts. This is undeniable. The fact that cows have died from the damp brook has already been announced by the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention. But tourists are absent, and they have been absent for a long time.”

“Now, dear entrepreneurs, about the real reasons for the absence of tourists. It has been ten years since the number of tourists has been declining year after year, regardless of whether the water blooms or not. People’s demands have changed. The era of iron unattractive ‘domiks’ is over; people no longer want booths covered with blue cloth. Tourists need services of medium quality and medium price. But here, we have low quality and medium or high prices. This is the real reason for the decline in tourists,” he explained.

“Now we must think about how to improve the quality of services without raising prices, how to deliver the best types and quality of services in international competition... But there is a big problem. In this short season, business is already investing, and immediately the price of the services provided goes up. This is a trap from which we must escape together with effective support tools (subsidizing interest rates, free hotel models, developing other tourist services, new infrastructures, etc.), not by closing roads.”

“Now is the time to open the roads, not to close them. Let’s gather, invite all relevant bodies, and try to move forward together. Now you want to pay less tax, not pay rental fees, so that the Minister of Health deceives. Now you are opposing your own state and trying to take the maximum for yourselves.”

“My proposal is to come together, invite all interested parties, and talk about solutions and developments, methods that will lead us all to victory, not just a group of people. We must start learning a lot. This idea is crucial. And we must not forget that Sevan is primarily not a zone for recreation and economy but a natural resource of global significance for freshwater drinking water, a spiritual and cultural value, a nation-forming and nation-preserving factor. I will write later about environmental issues.”