LOS ANGELES—For the first time in the history of the LA Times Travel and Adventure Show, the Republics of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabagh (Artsakh) will be represented—from Feb. 13-14 in the main Exhibition Hall, onstage with cultural performances and a photo travelogue.

The tourism offices of Armenia and Karabagh will share a large “Welcome to Armenia” booth in the Exhibition Hall of the Travel Show, which organizers estimate will be seen by as many as 50,000 people over the course of the two-day show. Armenia’s participation is co-sponsored by the Armenian American Chamber of Commerce (AACC), located in Glendale, Calif.; the Armenian Tourism Development Agency (ATDA), based in Yerevan, Armenia; and the Consulate General of the Republic of Armenia in Los Angeles.

Armenia will also be represented on the “Global Beat Stage” with a music and dance performance at 11:10 a.m. on each day of the show. The Gevorkian Dance Academy will perform modern and fold dances in traditional attire, and the Armenian music and dance group Duo Images will perform, as well.

A “Destination Workshop” will feature a slide show travelogue about Armenia and Karabagh at 3:30 p.m. on the first day of the show, Feb. 13.

This slide show, entitled “Welcome to Armenia: Ancient Nation, New Republic,” will be presented by Matthew Karanian and Robert Kurkjian, the authors of Armenia’s first-ever commercial travel guidebook dedicated solely to Armenia. The show features spectacular photography of the people, vistas, and historic sites of Armenia and Karabagh.

In addition to showcasing the beauty of Armenia and Karabagh in photographs, Karanian and Kurkjian will discuss the current state of tourism in the two republics and explain some of the logistics of getting there and getting around. They will also discuss Armenia’s prospects for developing as an eco-tourism destination. Their guidebook on Armenia, The Stone Garden Guide: Armenia and Karabagh, is the best-selling guide to the country.

“This is a huge event for Armenia, but also especially for Karabagh,” said Zaven Kazazian, a member of the AACC. “This is a rare opportunity to showcase Armenians at one of the largest travel shows in the world,” he said. Participation in the travel show caps a decade of growth in Armenia’s tourism market, according to the Armenian consul general, G. Hovhannissian. “Armenia attaches a special importance to tourism, and has declared it to be a priority sector for the country’s economic development,” he said. “This is a joint undertaking [by the government and the private sector] and I am sure the Armenia booth will attract a lot of visitors,” he added.

Approximately 650,000 tourists traveled to Armenia in 2009—a ten-fold increase over the number that visited just a decade ago. More than a million visitors are projected to annually travel to Armenia by 2020.

“This is the largest travel event in the U.S., and our presence will help showcase Armenia to a vast new audience,” said Nick Hacopian, a member of the AACC and chair of the committee that organized Armenia’s participation in the travel show.

Representatives of Levon Travel and Sidon Travel—two Los Angeles travel agencies that offer tours to Armenia—will be at the Armenia booth each day to explain the logistics of traveling there. Several tour operators will travel to Los Angeles from Armenia to be at the booth, including Saberatours-Sevan, Armenia Travel M, Elitar Travel, and Nueva Vista Travel.

The LA Times Travel Show will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sat., Feb. 13, and Sun., Feb. 14, at the Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 South Figueora St. in Los Angeles. Admission is $10 (and is free for children 16 and under if accompanied by an adult). For more information, visit http://events.latimes.com/travelshow/.

The Armenian American Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1999. The organization serves southern California’s Armenian American business community and encourages greater ties and collaboration with the business community of Armenia. For more information on the AACC, visit www.armenianchamber.org or call (818) 247-0196.