The tourism boom continues in Georgia. In the past year above 5 million tourists went to the small country at the Black Sea, this is more than the total population of Georgia. The need of new hotel beds is growing further. Especially mid-class hotels are on demand.
The worldwide leading provider of global b2b hotel data, ZAHL!? Top hotels are in the pipeline, according to TOPHOTELPROJECTS.
In 2013, the count of overseas visitors increased by 21.8% in comparison to the previous year. The bulk of visitors (88%) came from the neighbor countries such as Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia.
The number of German tourists increased to 30,815 in opposite to 26,448 in the same period of time (total number of visitors from EU Countries: 208,754). About 31% of the overseas tourists visited Georgia for the first time. More than two fifth of the guests stayed in hotels, and other 10 % in simple guests houses and hostels.
At present Georgia runs 777 hotels with about 14,400 rooms. In Tiflis, the capital, currently six large and 20 small hotels are in the pipeline. Also in Batumi many large and mid-sized hotels will open their doors within the next years. From all the 170 hotels in Tiflis with about 7,000 beds just a dozen features more than 50 rooms. Within the next three years the bed capacity in large hotels will increase with more than 1,000 rooms.
The new planned hotels will be by brands such as Rixos, Millenium Hotel (below), Park Inn, Rooms Hotel Tbilisi and InterContinental as well as a currently delayed Hilton Garden Inn. Batumi will operate brands such as Kempinski, Holiday Inn, Hilton, Swiss Hotel, Babylon Tower (BAB Group/Turkey), Cubic Tower and Gazelli (Azerbaijan projects) as well as a five star hotel by the Turkish association Mersin Tourism (hotel name is not yet decided).
Ambitious plans for the extension of the hotel capacities in Georgia cherishes the renowned international Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group (hotel brands Radisson, Park Plaza and Park Inn). According to the Vice President for Eastern Europe of the hotel group, Tom Flanagan, the chain will operate for 2017/18 up to ten hotels in the Caucasus republic.
By the end of 2014, the Kazakh KazMunaiGas investor and the Georgian Partnership Fund in Likani (Samtskhe-Javakheti region) want to begin the operation of a five-star brand hotel Rixos. The real estate and development company Red-Co is engaged in the construction of apartment hotels to the winter sports regions Gudauri and Bakuriani. Until 2016, a total of 2,000 apartments (hotel rooms) of different sizes (25 to 150 square meters) will be constructed.
