The number of tourists arriving in Armenia will exceed 400,000 by the turn of 2007, Ara Petrosyan, deputy minister of trade and economic development of Armenia, announced at a press conference, reported A1Plus information agency.
The deputy minister detailed that over 270 million AMD were earmarked for tourism in 2006, of which 139 million was spent to advertise Armenia via CNN. In 2007, 250 million AMD will be allotted to promote the development of tourism in the country, added the deputy minister.
According to 2006 statistics, the majority of visitors to Armenia were from Georgia, Russia and the United States, who, on average, spent $52 daily during their stay. Owing to the flow of tourists, as reported by the news source, annually employment at Armenian hotels increases by 20-25 percent.  In other sectors of the economy, taxi drivers, restaurateurs and others earn a large portion of their annual revenue providing services to foreign visitors.
This information was originally published April 11, 2007 (www.a1plus.am). -- 05/03/2007