The FINANCIAL — In total in 2010, average overall expenditure of tourists a day was 170 USD – according to Maya Sidamonidze, Chairwomen of the Georgian National Tourism Agency (GNTA). The figure includes general tourist spending items such as accommodation, flights, eating, souvenirs, tours and sightseeing.
From over 2 million international travellers who visited Georgia in 2010, most of them spent ten days going around the country.
The cost of a 10 day trip to Georgia from different parts of the world (including flights) is given below:
Country Expenditures – USD
USA 2,492.62
Canada 2,200
Turkey 2,036
Japan 2,027
France 1,774
Azerbaijan 1,747
Germany 1,628.24
UK 1,574.37
Baltic Countries 1,479
Belarus 1,302
Ukraine 917
Israel 819
Armenia 816
Poland 804
Kazakhstan 800
Czech Republic 788
Iran 748
“A 10 day visit to Georgia is quite enough to familiarise oneself with the major tourist attractions in the country,” noted Sidamonidze.
“We have done thorough research and compared prices with many destinations beyond Georgia and prices here are lower than in many other countries,” she claims.
“The cost of visiting Georgia has been substantially cut since the low-cost airline Pegasus entered the Georgian market thereafter followed by a significant rise in the number of international travellers. Currently negotiations are also being conducted with other low-cost airlines,” added Sidamonidze.
“In 2011, it is planned to attract a substantial number of Japanese travellers via active marketing campaigns as GNTA actively cooperates with leading Japanese corporation JTB Business World Tokyo,” claims Sidamonidze.
“In addition other large tour operators, TUI Travel PLC, Kuoni closely work with Georgian travel companies and are quite active in bringing tourists to Georgia,” said Sidamonidze.
Prices of tour packages at Georgian travel companies vary from one company to another but they all use basically the same system based on the same principle: The bigger the group, the smaller the cost.
As Ramaz Khutsishvili, Vice-President of Visit Georgia, told The FINANCIAL, individual tour packages costs 100-120 USD for a tourist whilst for group tours it ranges from 70 to max. 100 USD; This includes accommodation, internal transportation, guides, museum tickets, and HB (half-board).
“The demand on tours rose throughout 2010 and still continues to be 30-40% compared to the year 2009’s figures at our company,’’ noted Khutsishvili.
“On the first day we meet the tourist to pick them up at the airport, transfer and check-in in the hotel and go on with the Tbilisi city tour: Narikala, the Mosque, the Sulphur Baths, Shardeni Street, Metekhi Church, Holy Trinity Cathedral and The Art Museum,” said Khursishvili.
“The next day, they travel from Tbilisi to the ancient capital of Georgia, Mtskheta, where they visit Jvari, Svetitskhoveli and Samtavro. Then they leave for Ananuri thereafter being in Gudauri where they stay a night (there is also huge demand for Svaneti, the new ski resort there, hence we can take them there too),” he said.
“Over the next days they visit the North-Eastern part of Georgia, Stepantsminda, Kazbegi, Gergeti Holy Trinity Church, the Darial and Truso gorges, Uplistsikhe, Samtavisi, Khertvisi, and then they travel to the South to see the cave city of Vardzia.
Within the remaining days they’re taken on a tour to Kakheti in Eastern Georgia which includes visiting Tsinandali house museum, the house museum of King Erekle II, Old and New Shuamta, Alaverdi Monastery and David-Garejeli Monastery. The route for tourists may vary depending on their wishes. Finally the tourists return to Tbilisi and are transferred to the airport,” Khutsishvili told The FINANCIAL.
As other travel companies, such as fresh travel, noted, travel tours have become most demanded for the mountainous regions of Georgia, demand has especially risen for Svaneti.
With a newly opened tourism information centre in Svaneti-Mestia, GNTA plans to upgrade old and open new tourist information centres (in Kvareli, Kutaisi, Zugdidi and Kazbegi in 2011) that’ll contribute to spreading economic benefits of tourism throughout the country with the purpose of development of tourist destinations throughout the country.
“In 2011, it is planned to extend the number of classified hotels beyond Tbilisi, Batumi and Kobuleti. To facilitate the booking process of accommodation in the country, the Agency plans to create a national online reservation system,” said Sidamonidze to The FINANCIAL.
“We are also starting the development of Destination Management Organizations. The model and the structure of such organizations will be created in the framework of the EU Twinning Project,” she said.
“The EU Twinning Project will also deal with such significant issues as legislation. At present, the legislation related to the tourism sector in Georgia consists of two laws: The Law of Georgia on Tourism and Health Resorts and The Law of Georgia on Protective Sanitary Zones and Resort Localities. The aforementioned laws are obsolete and fail to meet the needs of the industry. A new law will contribute to the creation of an environment conducive to tourism development in general and growth of the private sector in particular. Another important outcome of the Twinning Project will be provision of trainings for state and private bodies operating in tourism,” said Sidamonidze to The FINANCIAL.
“In addition National Tourism Agency, in its turn, works vigorously towards improvement of service quality in the country. Intensive trainings for employees of hotels and restaurants throughout Georgia are currently conducted and will go on in the future. In order to take the hospitality sector to a whole new level, the Agency in close cooperation with a nationwide association Global Star works on classification of hotels, guest-houses and restaurants,” concluded Sidamonidze.
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