Machavariani’s statement about entrepreneurs’ income
By Anastasia Sokhadze
Tuesday, July 7
Machavariani made a statement, saying that opening borders may cause further crises instead of improvement. He stated that in this case the economic decline will be higher than the expected 6% and -7 or -8%.
"I want to tell all Georgian entrepreneurs that if someone thinks that the case of opening borders will increase their income, they are mistaken, because in this case, there will be very little flow of tourists,” stated Machavariani.
Machavariani stated that if the borders are open, about 50,000 tourists could enter by the end of the year, which would be only 0.5% of the number of tourists entering in previous years and will not be enough to boost the economy. He said that since we do not have internal distribution now and virtually all cases are registered at the border, domestic tourism has been easily launched; But he said that if the virus spreads again after the border is reopened, domestic tourism will decline, which will have a greater impact on the economy. According to him, this will further cause a crisis for local entrepreneurs, cafe and restaurant owners, and so on.
The opening of the borders was scheduled for July 1st for international tourists. Government officials said that we would be one of the first countries to open borders, but this did not happen and the process was postponed until July 31st. The government is saying that if tourists are admitted, “there will be a danger of another epidemic, which will further hurt the economy.”
