Emerging destinations have gained popularity lately, as travellers seek unique and distinct experiences. An emerging destination is a relatively unknown or undeveloped tourism spot with the potential to become well-known and established. Armenia, for instance, is an emerging destination with the capacity to attract numerous tourists and has been growing in appeal (World Economic Forum, 2019). Additionally, the Armenian government has recently begun to prioritise tourism and has been creating various Destination Management Plans to increase the number of visitors. Eliza Bagdasaryan extensively examined this subject in her dissertation titled ‘Promoting Armenia as a Tourist Destination to the British Market (2022)’ at the University of Westminster, London, UK.
According to the survey conducted by Ms Bagdasaryan, on a 7-point Likert scale of interest in emerging destinations, 35% of respondents opted for the highest rating (see Figure 1), which proves that emerging destinations are getting more popular.
The survey also indicated that not many people know much about Armenia as a destination (see Figure 2).
Figure 2. Awareness of Armenia as a destination
According to the survey, those who are aware of Armenia as a destination heard of it mostly from friends or relatives and through the Internet.
Analysing Armenia’s marketing strategy is crucial because many survey respondents indicated that they have never considered visiting Armenia due to its insufficient promotion as a destination. The research proves that the projected destination image of Armenia differs from the perceived one. While the government aims to prioritise less-known sites and promote new tourist routes, such as extreme sports (canyoning, rope jumping etc.), nightlife wine tourism, the most common feedback focuses on famous aspects primarily related to culture and heritage: architecture, food and hospitality.
In fact, 85% of respondents who travelled to Armenia before stated in the survey that they would want to visit Armenia again, which means that Armenia has a strong fundament for development and in the future can become a more popular and established tourism destination attractive for different groups of people.
