Wandelion: Armenian online tourism platform

Wandelion website allows planning your trip in Armenia and Georgia from the first step.

The website will officially be launched on May 1. Before the date, Itel.am talked to the co-founder of the newly created platform which is going to develop tourism in Armenia online.

Wandelion is co-founded by Areg Gedeonyan, Vahe Asatryan and Zorik Tsaturyan. They came up with the idea of the platform in 2012. “Wandelion” was coined from English “Dandelion” word. According to the co-founders of the website, dissemination of the components of this flower through a wind symbolizes a road.

Talking to Itel.am, Zorik Tsaturyan says that Wandelion is created for people who think that a travel starts not upon the arrival in the final destination but long before it, during the planning stage.

“Wandelion provides travel packages to individuals offering unique destinations meeting a tourist’s preferences. The packages will include target spots - visit, accommodation, food, entertainment and travel guides’ services”, he says.

According to Zorik Tsaturyan, they differ from similar international platforms by a number of features.

“The packages are meant for not only individual travelers but tour leaders. The latter will get a number of benefits including discounts in case of group trips. We will directly connect to tourism operators and agencies. Besides, we will cooperate with travel bloggers. We will pay them to place our website’s link on their blog and recommend their readers to visit Armenia using our services”, he stresses.

Wandelion co-founder notes that a visitor will be able to adjust schedules, work out his own route etc. in near future.

''In case of particular tours, however, the option will be limited due to the peculiarities of the season, for instance, climbing Mount Ararat”, explains Zorik Tsaturyan.

According to the co-founder of the website, they are now trying to target mostly adventure tourism as there are numerous places in Armenia where the destination can be developed. At first, they are planning to work on the Armenian and Georgian markets and then will extend operation in other countries as well.