Friday, November 2, 2012

Tourism business dissatisfied with National Tourism Agency: "If tourism is not a priority for the government, it is better for the sector"

Photo: Commersant
02.11.2012. What will happen to the National Tourism Agency? Will its funding and functions be changed? The new government doesn’t have specific answers to these questions yet, but statements of the government members  make clear that "Georgian Dream" is not going to assign such an importance to tourism as the previous government.

"We, of course, will support the development of tourism, but tourism  can’t be  either the sole or the main activity because we have  more, much more richer and diverse resource," - Bidzina Ivanishvili  said in his  speech. Commersant tried to connect with the National Tourism Agency  and  find out how much the agency’s funding is and whether increase or decrease is planned or change of the agency’s functions. However, we have not received any response from the agency management.

According to the director of the travel company "Travel Tour" Siko Gegiadze, funding should be increased, but if tourism is not a priority for the new government, it is better for tourism industry development.

"The former government made wrong calculations in this field, and when the focus had to be made on attracting tourists from the former post-Soviet space, PR - campaigns were carried out in Europe and America, "- Gegiadze notes.

In his words, the focus should be made on those countries where Georgia is well-known and still remember the rest in Georgia.

Gegiadze notes the majority of tourists are still concerned  about  high prices in the country’s  hotels and restaurants and new government must impose certain advantages in this business. Gegiadze names the value of the tickets a problem as well. In his words, the relationship between tourist agencies and hotels should be improved.

Gegiadze explains that reforming must begin in the National Tourism Agency because the work in a form that existed up to day was ineffective.

Source

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