Tbilisi Wins 2018 Experts’ Choice Award for Best Emerging Destination
Tbilisi has earned its place at the top of this year’s Experts’ Choice ‘Best Emerging Destination’ award.
The decision was made based on recommendations from leading travel media companies and also takes into account the cities placement in the “best of 2018” lists, including the amount and quality of hotels, restaurants and attraction reviews.
Experts from National Geographic, The Guardian and Rough Guides all concur that it is time the world takes notice of Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, which was selected by TripExpert on the basis of over 1 million reviews from 85 publications.
The announcement article says, “the city, which has been influenced by countless cultures and been part of many empires, remains intrinsically itself while striving to embrace change.”
The emerging art scene in the capital is also mentioned in the article, saying “a burgeoning arts scene is breathing new life into Old Tbilisi. Project ArtBeat, a gallery whose focus is on emerging and mid-career artists from Georgia and around the world, established a permanent presence in the neighborhood of narrow streets and buildings known for their shambolic charm.”
It also recommends a visit to cultural center and writers' residence, the Writer’s House, and Fabrika Hostel, an "affordable 98-room property in a converted textile factory, particularly liked by The Guardian for its “huge courtyard surrounded by independent bars and shops.”
"Across the river and in another category altogether is the gorgeous Rooms Hotel," the article reads, which Lonely Planet calls “by far Tbilisi’s most stylish hotel.” The 137-room converted Soviet-era publishing house boasts a number of "unique suites and interiors that weave together a contemporary sensibility with a vintage Georgian aesthetic."
Tripexpert notes that in 2017, Vice had in mind to ask whether Tbilisi's favorite Bassiani, an industrial chic club built under the national football stadium, might be the new Berghain. "There’s increasing openness to the LGBTQ community and venues like Bassiani are destinations for travelers of diverse identities."
The article also mentions the 24-hour sulfur baths, Georgia's ancient wine culture, and its cuisine, going on to highlight "the best restaurant in town: Shavi Lomi, the beloved creation of chef Meriko Gubeladze," serving up unique Georgian fusion in a cozy atmosphere.
The two runners up in the Emerging Destination category were Medellin and Belgrade.
GEORGIA TODAY contacted TripExpert Co-Founder Andrew Nicol to find out more about his inspiration behind creating the company and what he thought of this year’s winner.
“As someone who grew up in South Africa, a developing country where tourism is an important industry, I followed with interest our new Experts’ Choice Award for Best Emerging Destination. Georgia, and Tbilisi in particular, received highly complimentary coverage in many of the 85+ publications that we track on TripExpert, including National Geographic, The Guardian, Rough Guides and The Wall Street Journal. We also noted an increasing number of venues in Tbilisi receiving our Experts’ Choice award,” Nicol told us.
“Two especially promising features of Tbilisi are its growing arts and nightlife scenes, which often appear to be leading indicators of a boom in a city’s tourism industry. Once a destination is perceived as ‘alternative,’ ‘edgy,’ or ‘cool’ (all words which our expert reviewers have used for Tbilisi), it starts attracting a growing number of international travelers, which in turn creates demand for new hotels, bars and restaurants and draws yet more visitors. Of all the cities that we considered for the award, Tbilisi is the best placed for tourism growth in the coming years.”
We asked him if he’d been to Tbilisi himself, and he told us ‘no’. “Although other members of our team have been to the city, I’ve not yet had the opportunity, but it’s now at the top of my list!”
We then turned the conversation to TripExpert.
“I founded TripExpert to provide a more reliable alternative to crowdsourced travel sites,” he told us. “By relying exclusively on reviews written by professionals, we eliminate many of the problems with user reviews, which are often misleading and are subject to abuse. For smaller destinations like Tbilisi, a particular problem with user reviews is that travelers don’t have any basis for comparison: for example, they will likely only ever stay at one hotel in the city. Reviewers writing for travel guides, magazines and newspapers are better placed to recommend the very best. We hope that being able to rely on the advice of experts will help travelers make the most of their trips to Tbilisi or to any of the other destinations that we cover.”
So, it looks like Georgia’s ever-growing tourism numbers will see a further boom in the near future. Make sure you get in on it!
See the full TripExpert article here.
By Tom Day and Katie Ruth Davies