Foreign Investment to Develop Sports Tourism in Georgia

Prime Minister of Georgia Giorgi Kvirikashvili has highlighted the need to support and develop sports tourism in the country and noted that Canada and Slovakia are injecting USD 65 million (150 million GEL) into Georgia to build new sporting infrastructure to develop the country’s ability to host top sporting events.

“Over the past four years, the government has spent more than USD 213 million (about 500 million GEL) on a variety of sports infrastructure and activities. This overriding support for the development of Georgian sport has given the right results, with Georgia becoming something of a regional hub in terms of sporting events,” the PM said.

He noted the importance of foreign partnership and asked the country’s Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs to launch a public-private partnership model that would best support the Canadian and Slovakian investment.

“The State shall not compete with the existing infrastructure and the best partnership model should be found to avoid damaging a competitive environment. This service should be available for wider society and we should not become the managers of this infrastructure in the long-term,” said Kvirikashvili.

Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, Tariel Khechikashvili, said that Georgia is preparing to host a number of sporting events in 2017, such as the World Rugby U20 Championship. The Minister claimed that due to the development of sports infrastructure, these events would be held at the highest level, which will contribute to the development of sports tourism overall.

Eka Karsaulidze