The FINANCIAL — Svaneti will be opened this year for the first time as a winter resort with competitive prices of stay compared to the other two leading ski resorts Bakuriani and Gudauri. In Mestia a quality ropeway will start working with new ski routes, and cottages will be fully booked during the winter season.
“This year’s primary target for us is Mestia and we’re very intensively working there, initiating new routes in Mestia, opening a tourism information centre and also trying to negotiate with the private sector to be engaged in the process of selling Mestia as a brand,” said Maia Sidamonidze, Chairwoman of the Georgian National Tourism Agency.
“Actually the reality about ski resorts is that most of the places in Gudauri or Bakuriani are often full of tourists. And if demand increased there would be no place for them. Hence new hotels need to be built,” noted Sidamonidze.
“Svaneti will become very competitive in terms of those two major destinations. And also next year there will be other resorts available, in the mountains in Adjara and other new destinations,” she added.
“Bakuriani is mainly for families, and Gudauri is popular with youth. But Mestia we want to position not as expensive but as exclusive, a very different ski resort as it is very special,” she noted.
“The prices in Svaneti will be far less than let’s say Swiss resorts. Also the natural beauty of the place is really spectacular for tourists,” said Sidamonidze to The FINANCIAL.
Bakuriani as a resort will be opened between 15-25 of December depending on the snowfall.
As Marika Makieva, Coordinator at Tourist Information Centre, told us, the average price for a single tourist’s stay per night will be about 60-70 GEL, with three meals a day inclusive.
“For this season we expect 15,000 tourists from different countries, mainly from Baku, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany. The number of spaces in Bakuriani overall is 5,000,” said Makaeva.
“This year we’ll have 2-3 new guesthouses and another 3 restaurants added together with a new club/bar in the green valley,” Makaeva told The FINANCIAL.
As for the Gudauri resort, which is popular among youth and also various sportsmen, new infrastructure will be added this year.
“The ropeway in Gudauri resort has been renovated adding a special electrics system which will ensure a speedy and safe flow of tourists up and down the slope. In addition the pay system will be more comfortable as tourists will be able to order and pay a couple of days in advance. As well as those systems the ski way has also been widened meaning more people will be able to ski this season,” said Vano Vashakmadze, Deputy Head of the National Tourism Agency.
“As for the prices this year Gudauri hotels will be charging about 150 GEL and as usual guest houses will be 60-70 GEL. Overall there are 1,500 beds and if we take last years’ figure of 70-80,000 people overall visiting Gudauri, then this year we expect 15% growth, mainly due to the new infrastructure and the tourist information agency which was added,” Vashakmadze told The FINANCIAL.
Svaneti will cost about the same for tourists, at 50 GEL per night, food inclusive.
“Since we don’t have that much experience in winter tourism, the prices are likely to stay the same as they were in the summer – 50 GEL per bed per night, no matter whether it is a Georgian tourist or a foreigner. We don’t discriminate in terms of prices. However there are new hotels opening up, so this year we’ll be able to host more and more tourists,” said Zaur Chartolani, Director of the Svaneti Tourism Agency.
“This year, as you know, Tetnuldi – the newly built hotel, and other refurbished ones will accommodate the mass of tourists coming in” he said.
“The main novelty this season, which will draw in the tourists, is a new ropeway with new ski routes, and a new cottage hotel at the base of the ropeway. In addition concrete roads were built and for this season the National Tourism Agency will open its offices here to better serve tourists,” said Chartolani.
“Svaneti as a resort has two main seasons; winter and summer. Demand has always been booming in summer, but as for winter it’s the first time that we’ve experienced an official opening as a tourists’ winter destination that’s why this year will be a good test for us,” Chartolani told The FINANCIAL.
“Taking into account that this summer Svaneti saw a 105% increase compared to 2009, correspondingly next summer there should be more than 15-17,000 tourists coming. And the latter largely depends on the work of the National Tourism Agency this year,” he noted.
To book your stay in a Svaneti hotel, contact BusinessTravelCom at sky (@) sky.ge
or call: +995 99 999 662
Discussion about this post