Natia Turnava Opened Tourism Investment Session
17-09-2020

Tourism Investment Session was held within the 112th session of the Executive Council of the UN World Tourism Organization, which was opened by the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Natia Turnava. Representatives of international organizations, private and public sector participated in the investment session “The New Normal – the Era of Opportunities for Sustainable Tourism”.

Speaking at the investment panel, Natia Turnava stressed the importance of state support for maintaining the attractiveness of the tourism sector and attracting new investments.

“Our state support program ‘Host in Georgia’, which co-finances hotel development loans and franchise fees, was immediately restructured so that the businesses can have access to the program for an extended period of time. With this, 129 hotels have already been financed within the country, 3300 new workplaces established, and the total involved investment exceeded 130 million. USD. It is noteworthy, that even during this restrictive period of 2020, we had supported 10 new hotel investment projects throughout Georgia,” – Natia Turnava noted.

The Minister also highlighted that there were international investors who, in the last three months, continued their development projects thus aiming at meeting the increased post-COVID demands with brand new hotels.

“To this point, with the aim of boosting Georgia’s economy and supporting the sector, we introduced various initiatives -for example, in the framework of the very successful project “Remotely from Georgia”, we attract freelancers and the self-employed to live and work in Georgia as a way to stimulate the economy and gradually reopen borders in line with strict safety norms and health protocols,” – Natia Turnava added. 

Jacopo Dettoni, the Editor at fDi Intelligence, The Financial Times, introduced the presentation to the audience – the Foreign Direct Investment Trends and Guidelines, post Covid-19 Scenario”.

The Biltmore Hotel also  hosted a session “Emerging Trends of post-COVID Era in Georgia”, chaired by Mark T. McCord, Chief of Party of the USAID Economic Security Program. Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia Irakli Nadareishvili, the World Bank Regional Director for the South Caucasus Sebastian Molineus, the Executive Director of the TBC Bank Vakhtang Butskhrikidze, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Adjara Group Holding Valeri Chekheria and the Managing Director of the Colliers International Georgia, Irakli Kilauridze participated in the session. 

After the completion of the investment panel, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the National Tourism Administration of Georgia and the Master Card Europe.

It is also noteworthy that the participants of the session adopted the ‘Tbilisi Declaration’, which, along with the global tourism issues, contains a very positive assessment of the policy pursued by the Georgian Government to further strengthen Georgia’s position safe and global tourism.

“It is a great honor for us to have the name of our capital Tbilisi in the title of the UNWTO Declaration on the Future of Global Tourism at such an important time,” – the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development stated.

According to Natia Turnava, the Tbilisi Declaration contains a very positive assessment of the policy pursued by the Government of Georgia to make the country and the tourism safe and make the country’s image in the global tourism even stronger.




Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia. © 2021