The best tourist service providers in Adjara were identified at “Magnolia 2018” award ceremony. They are: Sheraton Batumi- the best chained-brand hotel; Tavaduri – the best restaurant; Coliseum Marina – the best Georgian hotel.

In total, 9 nominations were presented at the ceremony. The prizes were awarded by the head of Adjara Government, Tornike Rizhvadze and the representatives of legislative authorities. The head of Adjara Tourism Department, Sulkhan Ghlonti, together with the chairman of Adjara Government, made the opening speech and summed up tourism-related projects. For the special contribution to the popularization of tourism potential and the sector development, Sulkhan Ghlonti and his team were given an award by the chairman of Adjara AR Government.

“Tourism in Adjara develops dynamically, as evidenced by the increased number of international visitors and tourism objects.  In the current year, according to the data for the last 11 month, we have a 16% increase and 1,830, 888 international visitors in the region. In the last two years, there is a dynamic growth in the number of flights to Batumi. This year, the number of flights increased by 50 % compared with 2016 that refers to both popularization of the region as an attractive tourist destination and the growth in the number of tourists. In 2019, Batumi was named among the best new tourist destinations on “Airbnb”, which is very important for the publicity and image of our city. As for projects, I would like to emphasize “Tourism Development School”. In the framework of this project we trained more than 2700 people employed in tourism sector and we hope that, finally, all that effort will affect the quality of service and our region will get a lot of satisfied customers”, stated Sulkhan Ghlonti, the head of Adjara Tourism Department, at the award ceremony.

At the “Magnolia 2018” ceremony the awards were distributed as follows:

• Best tourist destination or tourist place – Machakhela tourist route
• Best tourist attraction – Batumi Botanical Garden
• Best tourist company – “Adjara Tour”
• Best restaurant – “Tavaduri”
• Best guide – Salome Chikashua
• Best village guest house – Shervashidze’s Marani
• Best brand hotel – Sheraton Batumi
• Best Georgian hotel – Coliseum Marina

The award winners were identified due to customers’ online research, Trip Advisor, Booking.com and Facebook assessing and according to the survey involving tourist-information centers, tourist agencies, guides, accommodation and catering facilities.

The Adjara Tourism Department rewarded about 22 organizations and companies for the special contribution to the popularization and development of tourism sector and gave certificates of gratitude for the cooperation with the tourism department.

The “Magnolia” Award has been held in Adjara since 2015. It was attended by the representatives of tourism sector, educational authorities, diplomatic community, government and non-governmental organizations.