Five-star Rixos Hotel opens in Likani resort

A five-star luxury hotel chain is ready to welcome its first guests in the health and spa resort area of Likani, Borjomi district in south-central Georgia.

Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili attended today's opening ceremony of the new Rixos Hotel, and said the new hotel would contribute to developing the region's economy.

Likani is located about 160km west of capital city Tbilisi.

The investor companies behind the Rixos Hotel project are Georgia's JSC Partnership Fund's (PF), a state-owned shareholding company, and Kazmunaigaz Service Ltd who provides oil and gas exploration and production services. The parties announced they had signed a deal to allocate the final fund ($18,300 USD) to close the construction works.

In total more than $48 million USD will be invested in the hotel project. The participation of investor companies will be matched equally at 50 percent each.

"The project of opening a Rixos Hotel in Likani was suspended for a while when new management came into the Partnership Fund,” Garibashvili said. 

"Today the project is implemented by the Partnership Fund together with the Kazakh company. We managed to open this hotel within a year. As I know all the rooms are already reserved in the hotel. This is because Likani has always been famous as a balneotherapy resort."

About 600 people were employed in the construction phase of the hotel, the PM said.

"Now more than 200 people will be employed in newly opened hotel. More than $40 million USD was spent on building Rixos Hotel. And the very important thing is that this world famous brand has entered Georgia. With such projects we would revive the economy in this region,” Garibashvili said.

At the opening ceremony Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan to Georgia, Ermuhamet Ertisbaev said: "The Kazakh Prime Minister has actually given us an order to invest in Georgia."

"Our main goal is to promote and strengthen bilateral relations. It is our president’s initiative to open up a Rixos Hotel in Georgia, which he announced in 2005. Last year a very important visit of Georgian authorities was held in Kazakhstan. Georgia is a very attractive country in terms of business climate,” he added.