Saakashvili appraises Georgia's tourism potential

Georgia's tourism potential is equal to 10-12 million tourists, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said after visiting the training center of international tourism on Tuesday.

He said when he became President, 120,000 tourists visited Georgia, in the year before last their number exceeded 2 million, and last year the figure reached 3 million. President noted this year 4 million tourists will visit the country, "and if not in the next, so the following year their number will exceed five million".

"I don't know such a country in the world, which has such a big growth of tourists," Saakashvili said.

He noted due to problems in Egypt and in general throughout North Africa, attraction of a large number of tourists to Georgia is possible.

In addition, Mikheil Saakashvili touched upon ski resorts. "Gudauri is expanding, Tetnuldi is being constructed, which will larger than Gudauri. A resort in Goderdzi will be equipped and Georgia will have three international winter resorts. But the largest resort in my opinion, will be Tskaltubo, development of which will begin this year," said the head of State.

He particularly highlighted the low level of service and lack of qualified personnel.

"In the service sector, unfortunately, our staff is badly trained and skills are low. But it is difficult to persuade hotel owners to retrain employees. Prices and services provided in hotels do not match, so we must think seriously about it. As soon as the number of tourists is over 5 million, there will be shortage of personnel, for every million tourists creates 30,000 new jobs," Mikheil Saakashvili said.


/Trend/