Postponement of border opening affects tourism industry of Georgia

Owners of travel agencies make staff redundant, and hoteliers reduce staff salaries because of the delay in opening Georgian borders to foreigners, travel agencies claim.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on July 1, it became known that the Georgian authorities postponed the start of the tourist season for foreigners for a month by extending until July 31 the restriction on regular international flights.

David Gabadadze, the general director of the Georgian branch of the travel agency "Rustar Online Tourism", shared his opinion with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. According to David Gabadadze, the travel agencies may already talk about the failure of the tourist season in Georgia.

According to the forecast voiced by David Gabadadze, even if the Georgian borders are opened, the flow of tourists will not be very high, since the countries which residents are clients of his travel agency, including Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Russia, "face not very good epidemiological situation."

After the postponement of the border opening date had been announced, travel agencies began to make staff redundant, and some hoteliers reduced staff salaries by half, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Khatuna, an owner of a travel agency. "Now, small travel agencies will be able to survive, while large companies need to pay for office rent and salaries for [numerous] employees so as not to lose their business partners and clients. The companies have expenses and no incomes," Khatuna explained.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 6, 2020 at 07:11 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.