UNWTO ministerial scheduled to discuss prospects of tourism industry in September in Georgia

Ministers of tourism from several dozens of countries will gather in the Georgian capital city of Tbilisi in September 2020 to discuss the future prospects of the tourism industry at a ministerial under the aegis of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). 

This was decided during a video conference between Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia and Secretary General of the UNWTO Zurab Pololikashvili today.

Pololikashvili welcomed the tourism recovery and anti-crisis plan released by the government of Georgia, thereby noting that the country took successful measures, including those aimed at becoming the first country in the world to re-open its doors to tourism.

• Rebranding Georgia’s tourism image: Domestic tourism starting June 15, int’l tourism from July 1
• Georgia working to be the first country that welcomes tourists after coronavirus shutdown

Pololikashvili also praised the government's decision to classify various recreation areas of the country as green zones for tourism.

Attention was paid to the concept of safe corridors, which are negotiated both with neighbouring countries as well as with other markets of interest for tourism. Gakharia said the UNWTO's support in this process was important.

In his  Twitter post Pololikashvili promissed "full support" to keep coordinating response to mitigate the imact of COVID-19 in the tourism. 

Today I expressed to the Prime Minister of #Georgia ????????, @GakhariaGiorgi, our full support to keep coordinating a strong and effective response that mitigates the impact of #COVID19 in the tourism of the region.@GovernmentGeo @GeorgiainSpain @GeorgiaUN pic.twitter.com/lAIGYrzddk

— Zurab Pololikashvili (@pololikashvili) May 8, 2020