According to the European Parliament, EU citizens and travelers from around the world can help Georgia reduce the loss of the tourism sector due to the outflow of Russian tourists.
However, she does not give examples of actions on how to do this, and asks the EU to present concrete steps to support it.
The deputy also claims that a decrease in the number of Russians visiting Georgia will damage the Georgian economy "in the hundreds of millions of euros."
In addition, Gregorova expressed the view that Moscow is allegedly trying to intimidate Tbilisi by restricting Russian tourism to this country.
“The recent political decision of the Russian government to significantly limit Russians' ability to visit Georgia is an attempt to intimidate our close ally,” notes Marketa Gregorova.
At the same time, the director of the Institute for Contemporary State Development Dmitry Solonnikov, in an interview with RT, expressed doubt that European travel companies will work in the Georgian direction.
“For many years Europe has been trying to direct its tourist flow to the regions of the European Union itself - Finland, Spain, Croatia, Bulgaria and so on, such import substitution and an attempt to localize the finances of tourists from the European Union on the territory of the EU itself ... Therefore, this is pure a populist statement aimed at moral demonstration to Georgia that one of the European deputies is ready to stand with them, once again express their special attitude towards Russia, but nothing more. There will be no economy behind this, ”the political scientist concluded.
Earlier, Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze said that the damage from the loss of Russian tourists amounted to $ 60 million.
On July 8, 2019, Moscow temporarily suspended direct flights between Russia and Georgia in connection with the mass protests and the disruption of the meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of Orthodoxy, which was attended by the Russian delegation.