"Price dumping in the tourism sector is becoming a dangerous trend," - Vika Sharia, founder of the company "Oda DMC", said in an interview with TV program "Women's Narrative".
According to Sharia, all visitors to Georgia are automatically considered tourists, which makes the reliability of statistical indicators questionable.
"I do not dispute the statistics, but we all know that whoever steps foot on the Georgian border is registered as a tourist. After the war in Ukraine, even relocators were declared tourists. This, of course, does not correspond to reality," Sharia noted.
However, according to her, hotels in popular tourist destinations, such as Kazbegi and Signagi, are indeed full and high occupancy rates are recorded. As she says, Rooms Kazbegi, one of the highest-priced budget hotels in the region, had only three free days in June. Nevertheless, Sharia draws attention to the unhealthy decline in prices in the tourism sector: “Prices are dumped so much that even 4-5 star hotels are forced to reduce prices,” says Vika Sharia.
According to her, this trend is particularly harmful to small, boutique and local hotels, which are forced to offer services to guests for 40-50 USD – and even that often does not sell. This has increased the pressure on sales teams, which results in a poor working environment and reduced motivation.
According to Vika Sharia, this situation will be very harmful to the tourism sector in the long term.
