MARCH 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Astoria, a private Georgian company, opened its second hotel in the centre of Tbilisi, highlighting a boom in tourism. The company, owned by businessmen Malkhaz Manvelishvili and Amiran Gozalishvili, has spent 32m lari ($14m) on building the hotels. Tbilisi has been short of hotel rooms.
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(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)
MARCH 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The number of Russian tourists going to Azerbaijan for holidays will increase by 50% according to calculations by Russian financial newspaper Kommersant. Due to diplomatic sanctions against Turkey, the Russian government banned Turkey as a holiday destination for its citizens.
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(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)
MARCH 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkish real estate developer Mehmet Surkit opened a new luxury boutique hotel in central Tbilisi. In a statement, Mr Surkit said the hotel had cost 12m lari ($5.3m). Hotel groups have been expanding rapidly in Tbilisi. The city is also promoting itself as a tourist and business destination.
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(News report from Issue No. 273, published on March 25 2016)
MARCH 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – UK-based InterContinental Hotels Group opened a new five-star hotel in Borjomi, a Georgian resort town. The hotel, branded Crowne Plaza, cost $32m to build. Borjomi is famous for its water. Borjomi fizzy water is one of Georgia’s biggest exports. InterContinental also owns a Holiday Inn hotel in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi.
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(News report from Issue No. 271, published on March 11 2016)
FEB. 25 2016, TBILISI (The Conway Bulletin) — Iranians already living in Tbilisi have welcomed Georgia’s decision to lift visa restrictions.
Over the last six years, Iranian restaurants, shops and travel agencies have sprung up along the streets of Georgia’s capital. Iranians had viewed Georgia as a soft way around sanctions and also as a place to taste a more Western lifestyle. And Georgia, in turn, had welcomed the tourists and businessmen from Iran, even dropping visa restrictions in 2011 before, under US pressure, re-imposing them two years later.
Like the rest of the South Caucasus region, Iran wants to expand and strengthen its relations with Georgia. Now, with sanctions on Iran being lifted earlier this year, Georgia’s government said this month that it had lifted visa rules.
Iranians, with their distinct hair- styles and tighter, more colourful clothes compared to the dowdy black favoured by Georgians, an increasingly frequent sight in Georgia.
Most welcomed improved ties between Georgia and Iran.
Sahar, a 40-year-old Iranian living in Tbilisi was working in a bar.
“The visa free regime is a first step in strengthening regional cooperation, and was initiated by president Rouhani. He thinks it’s important that life of its citizens living outside of Iran is not difficult. And he sees it as a first step in increased economic relations,” she said between pouring glasses of beer for her customers.
Sahar, who applied for refugee status a year ago, is happy about the developments said that she had been living in Georgia for three years and that relaxing the visa system would increase the amount if Iranians travelling to Georgia.
“Tbilisi is similar, architecturally, to Tehran, I feel at home. But at least here I can be myself, be free,” she said. “My friends feel the same, a lot of them are talking about visiting Georgia for a few months, to breath, to get some air.”
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(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)
FEB. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian company RED-Co said it will build a $15m five-star Radisson hotel in the Gudauri ski resort. The new hotel will open in 2017 at the bottom of the Gudauri ski gondola. Together with the Georgian government, several private companies are developing the Gudauri ski resort, 30km south of the border with Russia. It will be the first five-star hotel at Gudauri.
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(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)
FEB. 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – US hotel group Hilton opened its first hotel in Armenia, giving the Armenian economy a boost. The Doubletree brand is one of Hilton’s top mainstream brand. The 176-room hotel is aimed at both tourists and business people, Hilton said in a press statement.
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(News report from Issue No. 268, published on Feb. 19 2016)
JAN. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan has made it easier for citizens of Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Japan, China, South Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore to obtain visas by making them available on arrival at airports. Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry said the country wants to promote tourist visits and business relations. In 2010, Azerbaijan scrapped visas- on-arrival for most Western countries.
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(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)
JAN. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Austrian company Wucher Helikopter said it applied to the government of Georgia for permission to open a heli-skiing business near the Gudauri ski resort, 30km south of the border with Russia. Wucher Helikopter has worked in the Gudauri-Stepantsminda area since 2013. Its expansion would be a boon to Georgia’s winter tourism.
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(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)
JAN. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian company Bloc Invest and Partnership Fund, a government operated business fund, will jointly build a three-star Radisson hotel in central Tbilisi. The construction of the $25m hotel will begin in the summer of 2016 and is planned to be completed in 2017. The new hotel will be built in the place of the Hotel Tori, a four-star hotel in the centre of the city. Major hotel chains have been piling into Tbilisi in the last few years.
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(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)
