Anti-Russian pogrom will cost Georgia $500 million
The Georgian authorities are forced to develop emergency measures to support the tourism industry due to the massive outflow of vacationers from the Russian Federation after the cancellation of flights due to anti-Russian riots in Tbilisi.
The Kommersant newspaper writes about this, noting that by the end of 2019, Georgia as a whole may be missing about $500 million in tourism income, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The situation threatens to undermine the situation in the once rebellious autonomy of Adjara, the newspaper emphasizes. “Tbilisi has so far managed to maintain stability primarily due to significant investments and the rapid growth of the tourism sector,” the publication recalls.
As part of emergency measures, the authorities had to develop a program of “co-financing of bank loans.” In addition, the Ministry of Finance will issue state guarantees to banks that agree to finance the completion of the construction of family hotels and hostels, which began in the spring in anticipation of the influx of tourists from the Russian Federation. In turn, the owners of family hotels will receive government grants in September to keep their business afloat.
The authorities also managed to reach an agreement with the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair to launch cheap regular flights with European Union countries. In order to replace Russian tourists with European ones, CNN and Bloomberg launched advertisements for Georgian resorts in the largest Western media platforms.
As PolitNavigator reported, anti-Russian actions in Georgia began after the General Session of the Interparliamentary Assembly of Orthodoxy (IAP) took place on June 19 in the building of the Georgian parliament and the head of the Russian delegation, Sergei Gavrilov, took the chair of the head of the Georgian parliament, Kobakhidze. Georgian radicals declared that Gavrilov was an active participant in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict, had repeatedly and publicly declared the independence of Abkhazia, and brought protesters into the streets. In response to the pogrom, the Russian government announced a ban on direct flights with Georgia and called on tourists to refrain from traveling to this country.
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