The 2020-2021 season has failed for mountain resorts across the country, as they are closed. Major hotels and restaurants in Tbilisi do not operate and their opening date remains unknown, as it depends on a positive pandemic curve.
Yesterday, after meeting with representatives of the tourism industry, Economy Minister Natia Turnava announced that the economic team would meet tour operators in the following weeks after the flight resumption from February 1.
As Maia Sidamonidze, former head of the Georgian National Tourism Administration and managing partner of Pro-Travel Georgia notes, development of rules for tourism recovery is essential and it must be started much earlier.
According to the expert, if the country takes international practice, they do not only have a strategy or an action plan, but also Post-COVID strategy.
Maia Sidamonidze believes that Georgia vanished from the tourism map, because the tourism administration has completely switched to the management of quarantine spaces.
"Marketing activity is necessary in this period, in order to be a competitive destination in the future. Georgia has vanished from the tourist map, because other countries invest a lot of financial resources in the promotion. If they do not attract international visitors now, it will help them not to disappear from the tourism market. There are targeted campaigns especially in digital media. Now, the tourism administration is engaged in the managing of quarantine spaces, instead of involving them in the marketing direction. On the other hand, they spend 100 million on quarantine spaces, that does not work and we are still in isolation”, Maia Sidamonidze declares.
According to Sidamonidze, if Georgia had been more active on digital platforms, the country would still be on tourists’ minds. The country carried out marketing campaigns for the last 10 years, but one day Georgia just vanished and closed the borders.
“This is an unreliable policy for the development of the industry. The current situation is understandable, but we should not stop existence and make some steps for the recovery of the industry,” Maia Sidamonidze said.
