The Qatari company Golden Tower Invest Group will create "high-level" hotel, recreation and health infrastructure in western Georgia’s Soviet-era Tskaltubo resort as part of a project aiming to restore the former sanatoriums of the locality into a modern spa resort destination, the Georgian Ministry of Economy announced on Monday.

State-owned non-agricultural plots of land and infrastructure located on it will be transferred to the Qatari company for implementing the project, where three-, four- and five-star hotels will be built, Economy Minister Levan Davitashvili said.

One of the sanatoriums in Tskaltubo. Photo: Tako Bakradze

The minimum privatisation amount for the Qatari investment group is approximately ₾12 million ($4.49mln), while the privatisation obligations are up to ₾35 million ($13mln).

• Economy Minister expects private sector to invest, take “active” part in Tskaltubo spa resort project

In July, the Government announced that Tskaltubo, located seven kilometres outside Kutaisi in Georgia’s western Imereti region, was expected to receive an estimated ₾500 million ($187 million) in private investment as well as “tens of millions of lari” from the Government.

Photo: Tako Bakradze

The initiative aims to transform the neglected resort into a “modern, European-level, world-class spa resort” similar to the likes of Baden-Baden in Germany and Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic. 

The project envisages privatisation of 14 sanatoriums, some of which have already been sold, the Ministry of Economy has said.

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