Tag Archives: tourism

Georgia becomes new destination for Chinese tourists

JUNE 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – China Southern Airlines, a Chinese carrier, said it will begin regular flights from Beijing and Urumqi to Tbilisi from September 22. The company said the move responds to increasing interest in Georgia as a tourist destination. China Southern Airlines launched pilot flights from Tbilisi to Urumqi last November. Chinese tourism has become big business for Georgia which is increasingly promoting itself as a holiday destination.

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(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Active Batumi builds 5-star hotel in Georgia

JUNE 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Active Batumi, a hotel and entertainment company, will build a new five-star hotel in Batumi, Georgia’s tourist hotspot by the end of the year. The new hotel will hold the Wyndham brand, which belongs to a US-based hotel and resorts chain. This would be the first Wyndham-branded hotel in Georgia. In Central Asia and the South Caucasus, the only two other Wyndham hotels are located in Uzbekistan’s capital, Tashkent.

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(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

New Hyatt hotel to open in Uzbekistan

JUNE 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A new Hyatt hotel will open in mid- June in Uzbekistan’s capital, Tashkent, sources told local media. The US-based company had planned to open the new hotel in 2013. The original plan was a $113m investment and completion by early 2015. According to reports, costs have now grown to around $205 and include an investment from the government. The hotel will open just days before a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Tashkent.

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(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)

Tourism income rises in Georgia

JUNE 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili said income earned from the tourist industry reached $1.94b last year, 8.3% more than in 2014. According to Mr Kvirikashvili, the number of incoming tourists increased by 14% in the first five months of the year, compared to 2015. This is important for Georgia, where tourism is a major part of its economy.

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(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)

Kazakh airline opens new links to Georgia

MAY 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — SkyBus, a small airline in Kazakhstan, opened additional charter flights for the summer months from eight different Kazakh cities to the Georgian resort town of Batumi, on the Black Sea coast. Batumi is Georgia’s tourist hotspot and the new air link shows how popular it is becoming with ordinary Kazakhs.

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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

German investors present resort plan for Kazakhstan

MAY 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — German investors presented a €30b ($34b) plan for the development of Kenderli, a new resort town on Kazakhstan’s Caspian Sea shore. The plan to build a new city near Aktau, to host around 200,000 inhabitants and several thousand tourists, has been touted for years. Now a group of German companies said it is ready to fund an initial €600m ($675m) for the project. Kazakhstan is trying to boost its tourist infrastructure and has earmarked the Caspian for development.

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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

Georgia’s city develops

MAY 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — House in Alley, a local development company, said it will build a new hotel in Batumi, a resort town on Georgia’s Black Sea coast. The company said the new hotel, which will cost 18m lari ($8.4m), will hold 105 rooms. The new hotel is part of the government-supported project to improve the area around the Heroes Alley in central Batumi. Batumi is Georgia’s top resort town.

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(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)

Batumi’s other poorer and dislocated side

BATUMI/Georgia, MAY 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — With its palm tree-lined boulevards, this city on the Black Sea coast is Georgia’s best known tourist destination.

It has boomed over the past decade and will soon host the world’s sixth largest hotel in the form of the 45-storey Twin Tower.

But there is a darker side.

On the outskirts of Batumi, several thousand people live in dilapidated barracks. Since October 2012, migrants and socially deprived people have been living in an abandoned Russian military base, now one of the biggest shantytowns in Georgia.

Its dwellers call it Ocnebis Kalaki. In English, this means Dream Town. It is a joke, a dark joke.

Water is available for only a few hours a day, there are frequent power cuts, gas is not provided and a rudimental sewage system increases the risk of infections and diseases.

Most of the families live in very small, poorly-built rooms. A family of eight share a two-room shack made out of wood, cement-asbestos, metal sheets and cardboard.

These people live on the fringe of Georgian society.

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(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)

Work starts in Georgia on world’s sixth largest hotel

BATUMI/Georgia, MAY 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Georgian real estate developer Orbi Group said it has started construction work on a $120m hotel in Batumi called the Twin Tower, a sign that tourism and business on Georgia’s Black Sea coast is possibly rebounding.

The two 45-storey towers will hold 4,500 hotel rooms, making it the sixth largest hotel complex in the world when it is completed by the end of next year.

Batumi is Georgia’s main tourist destination and had been the site of mass redevelopment. The previous government of Mikheil Saakashvili had spent heavily improving Batumi but its fortunes had dived after the election of the Georgian Dream coalition government in 2012.

This lack of favour coupled with an economic downturn triggered by low oil prices stalled many of Batumi’s planned projects.

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(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)

Tourism grows in Armenia

APRIL 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The National Statistical Service of Armenia said 252,506 tourists arrived in Armenia during the first quarter of 2016. This figure is an 8.6% increase compared to the first quarter of 2015. This may reflect Armenia’s increased attractiveness to Russian tourists, who have been banned from visiting Turkey because of a row between the two neighbours.

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(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)