Valeri Chekheria, founder and CEO of Salt Projects declares, that the state must take responsibility and quickly take steps to return to the EU path, as he says the current situation is negatively affecting both the country as a whole and the tourism industry.
He told BMGTV, that hotel reservations are actively canceled.
"The development of tourism requires a very stable environment. When the international press covers what is happening in the country and tourists see that, they do not feel safe and avoid coming here. Even when the protests were small, many reservations were canceled. I talked to my colleagues and today, I can confidently say that bookings are being canceled very actively. New reservations are not received, which is very important for the new winter season.
In addition, 50% of the income for the hospitality sector comes from conferences, events, and restaurants. Nowadays, if we look at these facilities, they are empty.
This is the responsibility of the state, they must de-escalate the processes. It will take at least 6 months to recover the canceled reservations," Chekheria says.
According to him, he condemns the violence against peaceful demonstrators.
"EU accession should not be stopped. This is the people's choice. We condemn all kinds of violence. I am also standing at the rally and peacefully protesting all this," said Chekheria.
