Ivane Machavariani on the Importance of the Tskaltubo Project

“It is not necessary for a person to be an economist or a businessman to realize how big and important this initiative is,” said the Minister of Finance, Ivane Machavariani on-air at Imedi TV, referring to the Tskaltubo renovation proposed by Bidzina Ivanishvili.

The Minister said that the resort had gained touristic as well as recreational, health-giving significance throughout the decades of its functioning.

“If we take a look at the tendencies that exist in the tourism sector worldwide, we’ll see that the main direction of the sector has become eco-tourism, health-giving tourism, also the most recent – gastronomic tourism. Tskaltubo has the unique potential to develop eco and health-giving tourism and provide a high level of service. The 100-year-long history of the resort gives us the right to be confident when we say that. At its peak, this touristic location hosted over 600,000 guests – that is an enormous number. Getting close to this number won’t be easy in the first years but if it was possible in the Soviet period to reach that amount with former Soviet countries, today we see clear interest from Israel, and the Near Eastern countries. Why does that happen? Because it is cheap, close and has good quality. So, Tskaltubo has tremendous potential,” Machavariani pointed out.

In his interview, the Minister of Finance focused on explaining why it was not possible until now to invest in the development of the resort.

“Probably because it is a quite risky start-up for the business that usually takes measures quite carefully. The first risky step is very important for the business to recuperate its investment, but it is also not easy to do o. That is why we should appreciate this incentive that has an ice-breaker effect on the sector, meaning that this project will get other representatives of the business interested in the matter,” Machavariani said.  

By Nini Dakhundaridze