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Germany’s Lufthansa will carry out flights two times per week linking Tbilisi to Munich.
Turnava added that Georgia was negotiating with airBaltic for a resumption of its flights to the country.
Georgia has opened its borders unconditionally for Germany, France, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
The country is on the European Union's recently updated list of countries for which travel restrictions should be lifted.
9.1.4 ​Tourism sector news
Georgia’s international tourism revenues nearly vanish in August
Georgia's revenues from international tourism in August, the peak month for tourism in the country, plunged to $15mn from $412mn in the same month of last year.
In 2019 as a whole, Georgia received a record number of visits—from 9.36mn international travellers, of whom 5mn were tourists. These tourists spent more than $3bn in the country. And the peak of tourism came in August, when 1.25mn international visitors arrived, of whom 753,000 were tourists.
In August of this year, only 43,600 international visitors visited Georgia, which is 96% less than in 2019.
Furthermore, the vast majority of those registered officially as tourists seemed to have entered the country for technical reasons such as for freight transportation.
According to a report by the Georgian Tourism Administration, along with the record drop in the number of visitors, the gender structure also changed dramatically: the number of female visitors was just 2,577 out of the total of 43,658 visitors.
Given that regular air traffic to and from the country has not yet been restored and that there is no clear plan for its restoration, it is likely that the tourism revenue decline in September will be as sharp as in previous months.
9.1.5 ​Infrastructure and construction sector news
EBRD lends €5mn to Georgian ski resort Bakuriani to improve public transport and other services
ADC seeks $1bn in compensation from Georgia over ended Anaklia port project contract
Bakuriani, a village and popular skiing resort in the Borjomi district of central Georgia, has borrowed €5mn from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to improve its public transport and public services.
The financing will help in the acquisition of street cleaning vehicles, snow removal and waste collection, as as in the purchase of multi-purpose trucks and 10 buses.
Bakuriani is one of the most visited mountain and ski resorts in Georgia. It is famous for its climate and natural environment.
“This project will help to improve the quality of municipal services and safety measures in an important resort town. Improving Georgia’s municipal infrastructure, especially in the regions, is of paramount importance for the EBRD. The project will also help promote gender equality across the workforce,” said Catarina Bjorlin Hansen, EBRD regional director for the Caucasus.
Anaklia Development Consortium (ADC) and Bob Meijer, a Dutch investor member of ADC’s supervisory board, have filed independent arbitration claims against Georgia over what they claim are their infringed rights in the Anaklia Port project.
The Anaklia deepwater port project on the Black Sea coast is of “strategic
46​ GEORGIA Country Report ​October 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com