Georgia: Lesson must be learned
A month after the anti-Russian protests in Tbilisi, a new surge of rallies begins in Georgia. This time - anti-government. Georgian hoteliers and restaurateurs are expressing their indignation, demanding compensation from the authorities for the disrupted holiday season due to the massive outflow of Russian tourists.
Most of the protesters are tourism industry workers came out on the streets of the resort town of Kobuleti (Adjara). The absence of Russians during the high season seriously hit the owners of small hotels and restaurants. In addition to lost profits, they have loans hanging like a yoke around their necks that will not be repaid on their own.
The protesters claim that local authorities promised to help, but have so far done nothing, so the protests promise to be long.
According to According to the Minister of Tourism of Georgia, Mamuka Bakhtadze, in just one month of sanctions, the industry’s losses amounted to $60 million. A drop of 13% compared to last year’s figures.
Former Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Nino Burjanadze, speaking in a radio interview Russian National News Service, considers the official data embellished. Referring to the opinion of experts, Burjanadze states that the tourism industry of the republic was missing $700 million, and the mere message about the suspension of air traffic with Russia led to a fall in the Georgian national currency, the lari, against the dollar, reaching a historical level of 3:1.
The conclusions of specialists from the Russian Union of Tourism Industry say that Burjanadze is most likely right, since according to their estimates, the drop in tourist flow to Georgia in July-August 2019 reached 70%.
In addition, the domino effect was triggered. The lack of security guarantees for our tourists (last year, every fifth guest of Georgia came from Russia) during the Russophobic frenzy did not make Sakartvelo more attractive for tourists from other countries, especially Russian-speaking ones, with all the ensuing consequences.
All attempts by the Georgian authorities and business to urgently redirect tourist flows from Russia to Belarus, Iran and the United Arab Emirates helped like a dead poultice. Hotels and hostels are forced to reduce prices as much as possible, but even this does not make Georgia a mecca of mass tourism.
It is reported that the republic’s tourism services sector experienced an acute shortage of visitors exactly a month after the organized anti-Russian hysteria in Tbilisi, which, in fact, caused mass discontent among industry workers.
Georgian experts cautiously blame the current government for the current situation and more boldly blame the former National Movement party, which has gone into opposition. However, no one has optimistic forecasts for the future of the tourism industry in Georgia. It all comes down to the fact that if the authorities do not develop some positive program for improving the tourism industry in the shortest possible time, then it faces a real collapse. The times of abundant Western loans, which ensured “Saakashvili’s Georgian economic miracle,” are behind us; no one will give new loans. On the contrary, it's time to pay old bills.
Currently, a belated search and punishment of those responsible for the current tourism disaster is underway in Georgia.
Thus, personnel purges took place at the Rustavi 2 TV channel. On August 20, the new general director Paata Salia, appointed to replace the boorish Nika Gvaramia, reported on the dismissal of journalist Georgy Gabunia, who insulted Vladimir Putin on air.
Together with Gabunia, the head of the information service Nodar Meladze and producer Georgiy Laperashvili left Rustavi 2, having allowed bungling to occur on air.
At the grassroots level, Russophobic baboons are also being punished. On August 20, it was reported that in the village of Bonevi, Gori region, a group of unknown persons beat up the leader of the “Anti-Occupation Movement” David Katsarav, who took an active part in anti-Russian protests a month ago. The victim reports on his Facebook feed that the police refused to provide him with help, and he was forced to get to the hospital on his own.
It seems, however, that the lesson did not go well, since Katsarava, after anti-Russian speeches, decided to interfere with the process of demarcation of the Georgian-South Ossetian border, so that the troubled woodpecker’s head will be pierced more than once.
All this, of course, is uplifting, but it falls into the category of “belated flowers.” Previously, you had to think, genatsvale. Elect sane people into power, crush Russophobes in time so that they sit quieter than a mouse under a broom.
The aforementioned Burjanadze, lo and behold, came to her senses and realized that ten years ago Georgia did not have to leave the CIS. Even if the structure was flimsy and not the most effective, at least dialogue took place on its platform, and it was possible to resolve pressing issues of the former Soviet republics in a family manner. Today Georgia is reaping the bitter fruits of earlier mistakes and manifestations of stupid pride.
In addition, the patience of the Russian authorities has come off, so that they are forced to make decisions because of which former brothers in the USSR, who have taken the path of practical Russophobia, experience general discomfort and a draft in their pockets. And rightly so. The lesson must be learned.
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