Abstract

Once a part of the Soviet Union, a backwater country, Georgia in a couple of years flips the script and rushes into tourism industry as one of the most popular emerging destinations on the Black Sea coast. With unprecedented number of tourists spotlighted by the leading international journals Georgia wins hearts of millions and becomes a revelation for the USA and Western EU countries.
This paper assesses current situation in Batumi Port that serves small cruise ships and explores potentials of cruise tourism development based on statistics, industry experts and investors reviews. The article uses a mixed method, a combination of qualitative and quantitative data analysis.
The findings show how Black Sea region will benefit from country’s cruise tourism development. Results of the study can be applied as basis for investment analysis of Georgian cruise industry