In Garni, home to Armenia’s iconic Hellenistic temple and dramatic basalt gorges, tourism is more than a seasonal industry – it is part of everyday life. And for years, one woman watched the visitors arrive and asked a simple question: where do they stay?
Gohar Barseghyan had lived in Garni for forty years, long enough to understand its potential and its gaps.
“I’m not a native of Garni, but I’ve been living here for four decades. I worked in tourism for many years and saw there was a demand for a guesthouse. We started with small steps, and that’s how Harmonia Garden was created”, says Gohar Barseghyan, Founder of Harmonia Garden.
Today, Harmonia Garden sits just a short walk from the Garni Temple – a guesthouse and gastroyard where guests wake to an organic breakfast made to order, spend time in a carefully tended garden, and leave with the feeling they have experienced something more personal than a hotel.
A place where women thrive
Tourism in Garni has long brought visitors. What it not always provided is stable employment for local women. From the outset, Harmonia Garden set out to change that.
“For us, it is very important to create jobs for women in the hotel. We currently have five employees, and we want to grow further”, says Gohar.
One of those employees is Marine Tadevosyan. Her story begins long before Harmonia Garden.
“I started baking when I was eight. We were a big family – many children, my mother would get tired. She made the dough, lit the tonir, and we would sit around rolling as she baked.”
Today, six decades later, Marine prepares fresh lavash for guests from around the world — baking the traditional flatbread in a clay tonir, just as she did as a child. What she offers is more than food, it is a living tradition.
EU support turning potential into reality
Local knowledge and determination can take a business far. But in rural Armenia, access to finance and professional support remains a major barrier — especially for women entrepreneurs outside Yerevan.
The Women in Business programme, a joint initiative of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Union, delivered through ACBA Bank, helped bridge that gap. Through financing and advisory support, Gohar was able to expand Harmonia Garden and strengthen it as a sustainable business.
“I’m proud that we managed to overcome difficulties and create a place where guests truly feel satisfied,” she says. “Some say ‘it’s real harmony’, others say ‘it feels like home’. That means a lot to me.”
Gohar is one of more than 7,000 women entrepreneurs supported in Armenia through the programme since 2014. Together, they are gradually reshaping the role of women in the country’s economy.
In Garni, that shift is visible in small, tangible ways: in stable jobs, in returning guests, and in the smell of fresh lavash in the morning.
With the right support, local businesses do more than grow — they create opportunities that last.
