“How to live without Russians?” - Panic gripped Georgian resorts
In the Georgian resort town of Kobuleti, owners of private hotels and guest houses came out to rally. Their main clients were Russian vacationers, whose share in Georgia will soon decline sharply.
Moskovsky Komsomolets writes about this, noting that representatives of the tourism industry are now asking the authorities for a deferment on loans that many local residents took out on the eve of the summer season.
Georgian Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Natia Turnava met with the protesters and promised that the authorities would try to mitigate possible losses for hoteliers, who, however, were dissatisfied with the meeting.
“They say they can attract tourists from Iran and so on. Who will come to us from these countries? They are hanging noodles on our ears. Maybe someone will come, but it will be 5% who will not give anything. And if they travel from Europe, they will go to expensive hotels, and the average private sector suffers. This season I’m already losing about 10 thousand dollars,” the rally organizer Malkhaz Khabazi, who owns a small hotel in Kobuleti, told the publication.
According to him, politicians are behind the aggravation of relations with Russia, and the majority of Georgians want friendship between the two states.
“I feel sorry for people because they are being punished. Those who performed in the square live richly. But 90% of the population is not. If it is possible to establish air communication, many will want to come. Many tourists have now left, and we tried to see them off as warmly as possible so that we all left a good impression of us. I personally lived in Russia for 10 years and served in the army for two years - this is my second home country. I have many friends and relatives there. We all need to take care of each other,” Khabazi said.
In turn, a representative of the tourism business, Vladimir Aspanidze, said that his company will lose half of its income this year, but continues to hope that people from the Russian Federation will be able to come to Georgia.
“I think that people from Russia will be able to find a way to come to us. Maybe through Moldova or Armenia. We really hope so. We have always lived together, and this is all politics,” said a representative of the tourism industry.
However, he does not believe that the situation can be corrected by the flow of tourists from other countries.
“Our connections took years to build, and it’s difficult to make up for that in a few months. Most of the guests to our country were from Russia,” admits Aspanidze.
Let us recall that Moscow decided to stop air traffic with Georgia after State Duma deputy attacked in Tbilisi Sergei Gavrilov and anti-Russian outrages began
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