In the beginning of June, the Tourism and Urbanism (TUF) Charitable Foundation and the World Media & Events signed an Agreement on cooperation to develop the tourism industry and tourism infrastructures as well as to facilitate to the professional growth of industry specialists.

With this agreement, TUF Foundation, which implements programs for the socio-economic development in Armenia through tourism and urbanism initiatives, as well as projects aimed at shaping a decentralized tourism chains in Armenia, will partner with the World Media & Events organizing the World Travel Awards. The latter was founded in 1993 to acknowledge, reward and celebrate excellence across all key sectors of the travel, tourism and hospitality industries.

As part of the cooperation, TUF Foundation organized a visit of Graham Cooke, the Founder and the Director of the World Travel Awards, to Armenia. In the course of the three-day tour Mr. Cooke visited the most spectacular and attractive touristic sites in Armenia – Garni, Geghard, Dilijan, Tatev, as well as the Genocide Museum and the Matenadaran in Yerevan. He also participated in the Yerevan Wine Days event.

“This cooperation is an opportunity for Armenia to climb to a new level of international tourism, become more visible, and have the Armenian cultural sites and attractions nominated for the World Travel Awards. Besides, we agreed on organizing an international wine and culinary festival in Armenia in 2022 with an expressed commitment to start the work on the project,” said Yelena Abovyan, the Director of the Tourism and Urbanism (TUF) Charitable Foundation.

“The cooperation aims at developing the incoming tourism in Armenia, improve Armenia’s position as a tourist destination in the world tourism market, strengthen the unity of professional communities in tourism and related industries, improve the image of tourism and hospitality specializations and jobs, develop the professional capacities of those engaged in the industry, support state agencies in developing public policies and implementing tourism development strategy in Armenia, as well as in elaborating and developing applicable laws and regulations in the sphere,” reads the announcement about the new partnership.