Surveying the Ground for Ecotourism: The Case of Shikahogh State Reserve, Armenia

Abstract: Ecotourism is a rapidly growing niche within the global tourism industry and has deserved the attention of wide circles from academia and the tourism industry internationally. There is, however, void of information on ecotourism in Armenia from theoretical and practical points of view. In light of its ambiguous perception, use and planning for development, the aim of this thesis has been to present the context within which ecotourism is to occur in a specific Armenian setting and to incite discourse on planning of ecotourism with an account of factors supporting, maintaining and enhancing competitiveness of destinations. In this qualitative research focusing on Shikahogh State Reserve in Armenia, I have used Ritchie and Crouch’s (2003) framework of destination competitiveness to identify factors affecting Shikahogh State Reserve’s competitiveness and the opportunities and constraints to introducing ecotourism in the area. The most competitive factors for ecotourism in Shikahogh are its core resources: natural beauty and culinary culture of communities. These, however, are not supported by ‘upholding’ pillars associated with political will and regulatory policy; community capacity (capitals); and stakeholder participation. Unless there is a holistic policy of introducing ecotourism to Shikahogh and developing the overall capacities of communities and a broad stakeholder participation, small and often unregulated initiatives will only pay a lip service to the fragile environment, and the impoverished, already disenchanted population. Above all, they will diminish the value of ‘ecotourism’ as a concept.