YEREVAN, APRIL 29, NOYAN TAPAN. The first international exhibition of religious tourism will be held in the city of Orlando (Florida, the U.S.) on October 29 - November 1, 2008. It is envisaged that Armenia will participate in this exhibition, NT correspondent was informed by Alan Saffery, chief expert of the USAID-financed Competitive Armenian Private Sector (CAPS) Program. In his words, the program intends to provide assistance to state bodies on management of Armenia's tourism sector in order to ensure the country's participation in the indicated exhibition. "This will allow to decide whether it is worth promoting Armenian religious tourism product at that exhibition," A. Saffery said. He advised to be careful not to diversify too quickly the range of Armenian tour packages. Armenia is currently perceived in international tourism market as a country of religious and historicial-cultural tourism, having quite strong positions in this sector of the market. In the opinion of A. Saffery, if Armenia starts offering too wide a range of tour packages, its perception as a religious and historical-cultural country will decline. As he put it, it is hard for a foreign tourist to imagine that "small Armenia can offer tourist goods of all kinds". He said that it will be beneficial if Armenian religious and historical-cultural tour packages combine with other types of tourism. According to Nadia Pasqual, CAPS travel marketing and communication advisor, work is already underway to diversify the range of tour packages for those traveling from Italy to Armenia. Previously Italian tour operators promoted Armenian tour production as religious tourism, whereas now its historical-cultural direction is stressed as well. N. Pasqual said that Armenian tour operators are now doing work to organize travels for tourists who take interest in such types of tourism as mountaineering, mountain walks, cycling, adventure, rural tourism and ecotourism, as there is demand for such tours. Promotion of such packages will result in development of infrastructures along these routes. According to N. Pasqual, Armenian tour operators have already made investments in creation of the appropriate infrastructures, purchase of equipment and training of special tour guides.

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