August 12, 2009 - 20:09 AMT
'Musicians for peace' festival to enhance tourism appeal of Armenia
'Musicians for peace' festival will enhance tourism appeal of Armenia. The festival will gather 75 young musicians from Armenia, Georgia and England on August 28 on the shore of the Lake Sevan. The festival is aimed to support tourism development in Armenia, as well as to promote cooperation between international organizations and local musical groups.

As Mekhak Apresyan, head of Development of regional economy and tourism department of the RA ministry of economy told a press conference today, due to world economic crisis, the number of tourists to Armenia has reduced this year.

According to him, over the first half of 2009, 207.729 tourists visited Armenia, 3 per cent more than within the same period of last year. This growth rate is very low, last year it reached around 20-25 per cent, he said.

"Musicians for Peace" is organized by the "Forsh and Friends" company with support of the ministry of economy of Armenia. Rock and blues performers, such as Armenian Forsh, "D minor", "Cross roads", "Reincarnation", "Dorians" and "Bambir", Georgian "String" , "Backur", "Smile", "Jumbalend" and British "Amtista" will perform in Sevan-based "Miami" resort .

According to Forsh (Vahan Gevorgyan), strict selection of participants, who can sing perfectly in live performance, was made for the upcoming concert. The singer also informed that there's an idea of organizing such a festival in Artsakh soon.