Georgian Tourism Proposal Leaves Azerbaijan and Armenia Open-Mouthed

Recently appointed 26-year-old Georgian tourism chief Maia Sidamonidze may think big, but her Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts are cautioning that bigger is not always better.

In a bid to bring in more tourists to Georgia and three neighbors (Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan), Sidamonidze proposed last week that the four countries just strike up a partnership and offer a joint travel package for tourists. What do you say Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia? The response from Baku and Yerevan was simple: It ain't gonna happen.

Sidamonidze’s intentions dovetail with Georgia's two stated goals of building regional economic bonds with Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey, and turning Georgia itself into a major hot spot for international tourism.

But Sidamonidze appeared to overlook one minor obstacle to the grand plan: Some of the proposed tourism club members hate each others' guts. Turkey and Armenia are not even willing to share a border; Azerbaijan and Armenia have been embroiled in a bitter and bloody dispute over breakaway Nagorno Karabakh for the past 22 years.

Could tourism succeed where international mediators have failed? Don't bet on it. Azerbaijani and Armenian tourism officials and companies took turns dousing Sidamonidze with a bucket of cold water.

“Any joint projects, regional projects with Armenia are out of the question,” bristled Zohra Alyeva, spokesperson for Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Armenian officials termed the plan "unrealistic."

Some Armenian and Georgian commentators called for updating Sidamonidze, who spent years abroad, on the past two decades of news from the South Caucasus.

In August, Sidamonidze, who studied tourism and marketing in Switzerland and the UK, took up the post of head of the Ministry of Economic Development's Tourism and Resorts Department. Her boss, 28-year-old Economic Development Minister Vera Kobalia, a recent import from Canada with a background in the bakery business, had praised Sidamonidze for allegedly having the best ideas on how to develop tourism in Georgia.