EcoLur
Two villages, Halidzor and Tatev, are located along famous Tatev tourist route: Halidzor is the ropeway station on one side, while Tatev is on the other side. The villages are connected with the longest ropeway leading to Tatev Monastery Complex. Tourists are man, but these villages almost don’t make use of any privileges. “In the season only 15 people are employed in the restaurants, several more people have tourists renting their rooms for one night, but there is no hotel business as such. Tourists don’t stay long with us,” said Halidzor Village Head Marat Gerasimyan during the meetinig with ENPI EAST FLEG 2 program working group.
Tourism in Tatev Village is not developed as well. Several people sell herbs, rosehip, fruit and berries near Tatev Monastery. Only the monastery area has some life in. No special programs are available. You can enjoy the beautiful view of Tatev complex from above - the road, but the road is in a very poor state. Besides, only people knowing where to and able to walk well can enjoy it.
People in the village mainly speak about the problems, but almost nobody speaks about solutions to these people.
“…This year we experienced drought…We are in a very hard situation – nothing to feed the cattle, no grass available. The whole cattle will be slaughtered in the winter… no water, no wood….The forest gets farther from us and we can’t collect the fallen deadwood, only those living nearby are able to do this…Our village (Halidzor) has 109 households and we heat our houses with wood…We heat water with electricity. We don’t build hotels, as we don’t think it would be profitable. There will be many expenses, but nobody knows whether or not the tourists will arrive…Time has changed. We witnessed more changes in one year than we used to for ten years. People don’t have enthusiasm any more, for example, for plant forest for community. No force is enough, the youth leaves the village…
Tatev village has 212 households. “…We can clearly see how climate change affects on us. We have problems also with the water. We don’t think it’s possible to do anything. Our schoolchildren are very active: they greened the school area, brought water in buckets and planted nursery plants. But we don’t have nursery plants and don’t have money to buy them. If we can get any, we plant them...” In reply to the question, why tourism is not developed, we received different answers, but the main conclusion is non-profitability of making investments. Tatev ropeway doesn’t bring the expected incomes, as large investments are needed for tourism development, but who will make them? Their only hope for improvements is the program on establishing Tatev National Park, which plans components of community support. While this program is not implemented, the villages will keep on waiting who and how will help them.
Tatev village
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Halidzor village
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September 04, 2015 at 11:48