Tbilisi: The Vice-Prime Minister of Georgia, Levan Davitashvili attended the opening ceremony of the Intenational Tourist exhibition, ITB Berlin 2023. At the press conferece of the International Media held in Berlin, Levan Daviatshvili highlighted the potential of Georgia to become the perinnial tourist desitination.
As Levan Davitashvili noted: “Georgia is at the crossroads of civilizations with unique culture, homeland of wine, 8000-year history of uninterrupted traditions of winemaking, the place where the first Europeans came from, Georgian alphabet – one of the 14 alphabets of the world, whose magical structure is exclusive among the original writing systems and truly reflects the uniqueness of Georgian culture.”
Levan Davitashvili spoke about Georgia as an important and interesting tourist destination, as well as the country’s successes in different sectors.
Georgia is the host country of ITB Berlin this year – one of the world’s most authoritative and representative forums in the tourism sector, attended by more than 180 countries to 200 thousand visitors. More than 80 Georgian companies from the tourism and hospitality sector are participating in the exhibition, which is organized under the slogan “Limitless Hospitality”, this year.
As Levan Davitashvili noted, Georgia does not hesitate to become a well-established four-season tourist destination, therefore, investments are being made in a number of directions, active work is underway to develop infrastructure throughout the country, including new, attractive destinations, balneological resorts, barracks, competitive services.
“The government is placing special emphasis on improving air connectivity, attracting more airlines through a liberalized aviation market and developing new international destinations connecting continents, countries and people.” Currently, 38 airlines from 3 international airports located in Georgia operate in 59 directions, including 30 to Europe.
In addition, a liberal visa policy allows citizens of more than 95 countries to enjoy a visa-free regime, simplifying travel planning, while significantly boosting the tourism industry. “Through this effort, Georgia has managed to become one of the fastest-growing tourist destinations in the world, hosting three times more tourists annually than its own population,” Levan Davitashvili said.
In addition, according to the Minister of Economy, Georgia has proven that it has the ability to carry out events of international importance, one of the examples is the successful World Championships in Freestyle, Snowboarding and Frisky held in Bakuriani over the past 2 weeks.
According to Levan Davitashvili, the results of the work carried out in various directions for the development of the tourism sector will eventually result in an 8% increase in travel revenues in 2022. 5.5 million international visitors and $3.5 billion in revenue from the tourism sector – here are the statistics of the last year.
According to the minister, all of this confirms that the country has implemented an effective and correct policy and has achieved significant success in this regard.
