MINISTRY OF ECONOMY
AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
OF GEORGIA

Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Levan Davitashvili officially opened the 2023-2024 winter ski season in Gudauri.

"This year, we are meeting the winter ski season fully mobilized, fully prepared and with updated infrastructure. This year was outstanding, like the previous years, and the state made significant investments to develop and improve the tourist infrastructure at the winter resorts," – the Minister said at the ceremonial opening of the winter ski season.

In his speech, the Minister evaluated the work done for the rehabilitation and development of the winter resorts in Georgia and talked about the plans in this regard. As he mentioned, during the resent years - since 2012, the government of Georgia has declared the development of mountains and mountainous regions as an important priority and started implementation of a number of measures aimed at improving the standard of living in mountain regions.

"We have introduced new policies, adopted the Mountain Law, a number of preferences have been established for mountain residents and businesses to encourage economic activity and improve living conditions there. At the same time, it was very important for us to develop the tourist infrastructure in the mountains, in particular, in recent years, the state has invested over 800 million GEL in the development of the mountain-ski infrastructure. This included investments not only in Gudauri, but also very important investments in Bakuriani, Svaneti, Goderdzi. In fact, the entire mountain-skiing infrastructure was renewed, which includes installation of the 28 new cableways," – Levan Davitashvili said.

As a result of the infrastructural works carried out in Gudauri this year, visitors will be be able to enjoy two new 1249- and 1369-meter cable car complexes at the winter resort, the capacity of which is 1800-2400 passengers per hour. There is also news in terms of ski areas - the existing tracks have been rehabilitated, and a completely new ski area of 6 km is added to the 70 km long track. As part of the infrastructure renewal process, a completely new special equipment was added to the resort – a snow blower and a snowmobile. In Gudauri this year, contactless check-in points are also updated on all cable cars, new information monitors are installed, the resort is equipped with new road and ski signs, and 2 new bathrooms are arranged. It is important that Gudauri will have a new building of rescue service this season.

Almost 70 mln GEL in total has been invested in the Gudauri infrastructure rehabilitation project.

According to Levan Davitashvili, the government continues to work on the development of mountain resorts in order to have more sports areas in the country and, accordingly, attract more interested visitors and tourists.

The Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development thanked the entire team of the Ministry, the Mountain Tracks Agency, the regional authorities, all those people who worked tirelessly and co-ordinately throughout the year for a successful winter holiday season in Georgia, not only in Gudauri, but also in other resorts.

Deputy Minister Mariam Kvrivishvili, Head of National Tourism Administration Maya Omiadze, Director of Mountain Tracks Agency Irakli Burchuladze and State Trustee in Mtskheta-Mtianeti region Davit Nozadze also took part in the opening of the winter season in Gudauri.