Tag Archives: tourism

Georgians celebrate visa-free access to the EU’s Schengen Zone

TBILISI, MARCH 6 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgians held street parties and hung the Council of Europe’s blue and gold starred flag from their windows as they celebrated being allowed to travel to the European Union’s Schengen Zone without a visa.

Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili, together with students, journalists and state officials, was one of the first to use the new visa-free regime, taking an early morning flight from Tbilisi to Athens for an academic conference on the future of Europe, before flying on to Brussels.

He hailed the start of a new, increasingly close relationship between Georgia and the EU.

“This is an enormous achievement and a great opportunity for Georgian citizens to better acquaint with the European Union, to better learn the values that the European Union stands on,” he was quoted as saying.

Georgia harbours ambitions to join the EU at some point and, although there is no appetite among EU member states to bring Georgia into the Union, relations are growing increasingly close. Last year Georgia and the EU signed an enhanced Association Agreement that allows Georgian companies to export to the EU.

Under the new rules, Georgians are allowed to travel to the EU’s 26- country Schengen Zone without a visa for 90 days. Georgians citizens will still have to carry documents confirming the purpose of their visit to the EU, including a return air ticket, insurance, a bank statement and accommodation bookings.

Still, most people in Tbilisi were excited by the prospect of visa-free travel to the EU. Miranda, travelled to Vienna on March 29. She said that border controls could not have been easier.

“I travelled the very day next after visa liberalisation was put into force,” she said.

“It was as easy as one can imagine. I met other Georgians at the airport who were travelling without visa. They all made it safely as well.”

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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)

Russians prefer to holiday in Azerbaijan and Georgia

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TBILISI, MARCH 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Baku and Tbilisi are among the top five destinations for Moscovites to choose to holiday in during this year’s spring break in April/May, the Vestnik Kavkaza website reported by quoting the RoomGuru.ru hotel and apartment booking website.

The data, based on bookings made for April 29 – May 10, may be anecdotal but they are more evidence of the growing popularity of both cities as tourist destinations for Russians. Both Baku and Tbilisi represent far cheaper options compared to Europe and are almost certain to guarantee sun, an important draw for Moscovites breaking out of a long cold winter.

Russians have also steered away from holidaying in Europe since sanctions were introduced in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. This, combined with a collapse in oil prices, triggered a recession which has reduced Russians’ spending power.

Maya Lomidze from the Association of Russian Tour Operators, told Vestnik Kavkaza that it was no coincidence that Baku and Tbilisi had grown in popularity.

“Azerbaijan and Georgia are actively developing inbound tourism, creating comfortable conditions for tourists and the potential for this is far from being exhausted,” she was quoted as saying.

Georgia’s tourism board has been working hard to try to entice Russians back to the country after direct flights were resumed in 2014, after being scrapped in 2008 during a war between the two neighbours.

The Georgian tourism agency said that just over 1m Russians visited Georgia in 2016, figures don’t distinguish between tourist and business trips, a 12% rise on 2015.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

Kazakh company to invest in Yurt tourism

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MARCH 10 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Baiterek Travel Center, a government-linked tourist development company, plans to invest around $2.8m building a yurt camp resort in the Zhambyl region of southern Kazakhstan, the Interfax news agency reported by quoting a source at the regional chamber of entrepreneurs. Kazakhstan has been looking to boost tourism numbers. Since 2014 it has scrapped visa requirements for visitors from dozens of Western countries.

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(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)

Trump’s problematic Azerbaijan hotel deal

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MARCH 8 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — >> So what has Donald Trump, President of the United States, been doing in Azerbaijan?

>> Trump’s deals with Azerbaijanis have been getting him in trouble. Do you remember the dossier that a former British spy compiled on him last year, during the US presidential election? So incriminating were some of his discoveries about Trump’s alleged dealings with Russia and his potential for being blackmailed that the spy handed over the dossier to the US intelligence services. At the heart of these allegations was a visit that Trump made to Moscow in 2013 during the Miss Universe contest that he owns. There were some lewd allegations from that trip, too lewd to repeat in this family newspaper, but, and this is the point, the trip was set up by an Azerbaijani businessman, Araz Agalarov, with strong links in Russia.

>> Okay, but now I hear that there has been hotel project in Baku which is linked to Trump.

>> Yes, this is a different issue. Trump agreed to lend his brand to a hotel in a Baku suburb in 2012. This was before the US election and during a boom time for the Azerbaijani economy. It was a good place to invest. His daughter Ivanka visited the Tower in 2014 to make sure that the work was going to plan. While she was there, she also met with Trump’s Azerbaijani business partners, and this is where the trouble now lies for Trump. He either picked his business partners carelessly or, worse, was in some way complicit in various dodgy deals.

>> What do you mean? Who were his business partners for this Baku project?

>> Trump’s main business partner was Elton Mammadov, brother of Azerbaijan’s former powerful transport minister Ziya Mammadov who has various businesses, including in the hotel sector. The problem for Trump is that these businesses are alleged to be linked to corruption and also to dealings with Iran’s Republican Guard. This is illegal for Americans under US sanctions. Trump has vigorously denied any links to corruption or doing business with Iran.

>> What has Trump and his team done about this?

>> Before Christmas, Trump quietly cut his links to the unopened Baku hotel and last month, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev sacked Ziya Mammadov as transport minister, although it is unclear if this was connected to the Baku hotel deal.

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(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)

Georgians to enter EU on March 28

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MARCH 8 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgians will finally be allowed to travel to the EU for up to 90 days without a visa from March 28, Georgia’s foreign ministry said. Earlier this month, the EU had approved visa-free travel for Georgia and Ukraine to the 26- member Schengen Zone.

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(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)

Trump’s opponents ask questions over Azerbaijan deal

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MARCH 8 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Opponents of US President Donald Trump verged on accusing him of corruption after they linked him to a hotel in Baku connected to Azerbaijani officials accused of taking bribes and of having links to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

A report by the New Yorker said the Trump International Hotel and Tower Baku was linked to Azerbaijan’s former transport minister Ziya Mammadov who has been linked to a business partner who does business with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

Some sanctions on dealing with Iran have been lifted but for US citizens it is still illegal to deal with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, directly or indirectly

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(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)

Armenia drives to attract Iranians

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FEB. 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Armenian authorities have started discussing setting up Farsi learning centres, installing bill- boards aimed at Farsi speakers and a Farsi information hotline. Media reported the Farsi-language drive was a tactic to encourage more Iranians to visit Armenia.

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(News report from Issue No. 319, published on March 3 2017)

Flights to resume between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan

FEB. 1 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Somon Air, Tajikistan’s national airline, has scheduled a first Tajikistan-Uzbekistan flight since 1992 for Feb. 10, media reported. Regular flights are expected to start up between Dushanbe and Tashkent on Feb. 20. These flights are important as they signify a sea- change in relations between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, who have quarrelled for years, since the death in September of Uzbekistan’s president Islam Karimov.

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(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)

China eyes major purchase on Georgian coast

TBILISI, JAN. 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — China underlined its ambitions to boost its presence in the South Caucasus by signing a deal with the Georgian government that could lead it to buying up 75% of the Poti Special Industrial Zone on the Black Sea coast.

Poti is the main entry and exit points into and out of Georgia for goods. It is majority owned by APM, a unit of Maersk Group.

Owning a majority stake in the Poti Special Industrial Zone would be a massive boost for China and would give it a major presence on the Black Sea for the first time.

A memorandum of understanding was signed by the Georgian government and CEFC China Energy Company Limited at a ceremony in Tbilisi attended by Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili.

Georgian media spun the deal as part of China’s One Belt, One Road project which aims to revive the Silk Road across Central Asia between China and Europe.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Uzbekistan cancels move to scrap visas

JAN. 9 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan cancelled plans to drop visa requirements for tourists only a few weeks after President Shavkat Mirziyoyev surprised people by promising to open up the notoriously hard-to-enter country.

The US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website reported that Uzbekistan’s official legislation website had published a document delaying by four years the introduction of the visa-free regime for tourists. The document had been signed Mr Mirziyoyev.

In December he had said that tourists from Western countries would be allowed to enter the country for up to 30 days without a visa.

Kate Mallinson, a London-based Central Asia analyst, said that the change of plan on the tourists’ visa- free regime hinted at a power struggle within the Uzbek system.

“The Uzbek government’s volte face on allowing visa free entry highlights the continuing leverage of the hidden state and all-powerful security services, the SNB,” she said.

“The SNB fiercely scrutinises entry of foreigners into the country and will have challenged this move which would have significantly undermined its control.”

Uzbekistan has one of the most tightly controlled visa regimes in the world.

Mr Mirziyoyev’s move to relax it appeared linked to the increased openness after the death in September of Pres. Islam Karimov. Karimov had ruled since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union and was regarded by many as a harsh autocrat.

Since taking over as president, Mr Mirziyoyev has improved ties with Uzbekistan’s neighbours and promised to improve the country’s business environment.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)