Tourism Industry Prospects – Forecasts by Economy Minister
“The economy and business sector, in general, bear losses”, Minister of Economy Natia Turnava told the reporter, who asked about the current challenges in tourism industry.
We should not differentiate sectors. Tourism industry trends will depend on the global reality, because the international tourism is a key contributor to this sector, Natia Turnava said.
"I would not differentiate any sector, because the global crisis initially hit the tourism and tourism-related industries. However, today, we should talk about what losses the economy bears. Various forecasts are published, for example, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Georgian economic growth will be 0% in 2020… In this case we depend on the global market – ultimately, the world community will defeat this challenge; supposedly, the domestic tourism will be developed faster as soon as we ensure safety norms in our country and overcome this challenge, however, the international tourism remains a key contributor to the tourism industry, in general, and therefore, this is a multilateral process that does not depend on only us and our decisions", Natia Turnava said.
The government is developing an economic stimulus plan for the post-crisis period to recover the economy as soon as possible, she said.
"On the whole, the economy and business sector bear losses. Therefore, we are doing our best to neutralize and cushion this negative impact on population and business; to shorten the pandemic duration and efficiently fight against the virus and maximally shorten the business suspension period. We are also developing business sector recover and economic stimulus packages for the post-crisis period so as we become able to gear up our economy anew after the threat passes away", Natia Turnava said.