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Kobalia spreading Georgian tourism potential at International Forum

By Salome Modebadze
Thursday, May 5
Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia Vera Kobalia participated in the International Economic Forum in Astana, Kazakhstan. The Minister attended the session on economic benefits of tourism throughout the world. As Kobalia told the media on Wednesday she introduced the 4000 delegates with Georgia’s achievements in tourism development. Boasting about the Georgian success story to potential partners Kobalia outlined the serious growth of the sector and introduced future plans to the audience.

At the same time Maia Sidamonidze Chairwoman of the Georgian National Tourism Agency and the first lady Sandra Roelofs familiarized the visitors of Dubai Exhibition Hall with Georgian tourism potential and its challenges. The visitors of the Georgian stand had a wonderful opportunity to get detailed information about the country and try Georgian Churchkhela. Talking of the importance of the exhibitions Sidamonidze explained that such campaigns don’t only aim at attracting more tourism but also developing business cooperation.

Trying to provide potential tourists with detailed information about Georgia and the services it offers to its visitors, Sandra Roelofs hoped to attract more tourists to visit Georgia. One of the Arab magazines writing on special adventures throughout the world became so interested in our country that they decided to write about Georgia as one of the best destinations for those travelers seeking to discover new culture.

Meanwhile Qatar Airways announced further expansion of its international route network with Uganda, Azerbaijan and Georgia joining its ever-growing list of countries served direct from the airline’s Doha hub. The three newest routes will be operated with Airbus A320 aircraft in a two-class configuration of 12 seats in Business Class and 132 in Economy. The airline’s Doha hub serves passenger and cargo traffic to all parts of the world, offering convenient connections across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, North America and South America.

Unveiling the expansion plans in Dubai, Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said the new routes further demonstrated the airline’s ambitious strategy to continue opening up new routes to popular and underserved markets. Tbilisi is a significant industrial, social and cultural hub, emerging as an important transit route for global energy and trade projects, located strategically at the crossroads between Europe and Asia lying along the historic Silk Road routes.

As Al Baker said on the opening day of the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) in Dubai, the Middle East’s premier travel trade show that Azerbaijan and Georgia were markets largely underserved by international carriers.“But there is clearly demand and huge potential and as a network global carrier, we are able to fulfill the needs of the travelling public from these three countries and for those wanting to travel there from markets we serve around the world,” he stated.