Demand for tours to Georgia is still restrained – Kommersant

Russians are interested in traveling to Georgia, but the demand for the destination is still cautious, said Interfax with reference to tour operators. In their opinion, this is influenced by the cost of air tickets and protests in Georgia.

Artur Muradyan, general director of the Space Travel tour operator and ATOP vice-president for outbound tourism, told the agency that Russians “have been and still are” interested in Georgia, including against the backdrop of the opening of resorts on the Black Sea coast of the country. Mr. Muradyan also noted the growing interest in traveling from Georgia to Russia for tourism and business purposes.

“It’s too early to calculate by how many percent today the sales of tours from the Russian side have grown – it takes time to trace this dynamics and issue objective analytics,” he explained. In his opinion, demand will grow “if the political intensity decreases as much as possible.”

In turn, Intourist reported that sales of tours to Georgia are still rare, despite the demand for them. The tour operator explained that this is affected by the cost of air travel between Russia and Georgia, as tourists are not ready to pay big money for tickets. “Therefore, there is no need to talk about restoring the level of sales to pre-Covid indicators. In addition, Russians are embarrassed by unfriendly actions on the part of some activists in Georgia,” the company’s press service said.

In mid-May, Russian President Vladimir Putin lifted the ban on flights to Georgia, the sale of tourist vouchers to the country and the visa regime for Georgians. Air travel between Russia and Georgia started Azimuth and Georgian Airways, Russian Red Wings plans launch flights to the country in June.

More details – in the material “Kommersant FM” “Georgia has accepted the demand for itself”.

Olesya Pavlenko