UNWTO, Georgia Airports and UBM supporting Routes Silk Road

MARSEILLE – It will be a first for both the Republic of Georgia and UBM, organizer of Routes around the world – a trade event putting in contact airports and airlines and increasingly tourism authorities. A first in the sense that Georgia organizes with the support of the UNWTO a major trade event putting all together airports along the Silk Road and airlines; a second first for UBM as it will be the first event at regional level. Until now, UBM Routes are only organized worldwide, by continent or by geographical entities such as ‘Routes Middle East’.

“This is a new concept for us to go more regional but we feel that a great opportunity exists for this area which still needs better air connections to emerge as a new destination for the world tourism community. We feel there is a great opportunity to be seized in terms of catchment area with an important population and a high number of inbound and outbound travellers. We expect around 350 delegates”, explains Katie Bland, director of Routes, UBM Live.

There is no certainty that the event will be hosted then on a regular basis but Ketevan Aleksidze, CEO of LLC United Airports of Georgia is rather optimistic. “Maybe we would not host it every year but maybe, there would be a need for an event such as Routes to be organized every two years. Together with Routes management and UNWTO, we have a true commitment to see a promotional event for one of the most significant historical roads between Europe and Asia”, she says.

And of course, as the host organizer, Georgia wants to profile itself as the ideal gateway between West and East. “The event will indeed be opened to a very large number of airports of the countries which were linked in the past through the Silk road, starting from Italy, the CIS, Turkey, the Caucasus up to Central Asia and even up to Western China”, adds Katie Bland.

The event will also give the opportunity for airlines to evaluate new routes to Georgia. Tbilisi airport currently received 1.4 million passengers in 2013, up by 18% and is connected to 40 destinations. From this number, 22% of all passengers flows are to and from Turkey followed by Ukraine with 12% and Russia with 11%. Destinations along the Silk Road include already Almaty, Antalya, Baghdad, Yerevan, Istanbul, Rome, Baku, Teheran, Aktau, Astana and Urumqi. According to Ketevan Aleksidze, Tbilissi should accommodate 1.8 million passengers in 2014.