Foreign direct investment in Georgia’s hotels and restaurants is smaller than the skyline suggests. Geostat’s foreign direct investment tables put FDI in accommodation and food services at $36.3 million in 2023, $39.1 million in 2024 and $40.2 million in 2025, about 2 percent of the total each year. Before the pandemic the same line ran at $106 million to $123 million a year. Real estate drew far more in 2025: $254.7 million.
Where hotel capital is going still matters for the next decade of the country’s tourism product. The hotels, the wineries, the mountain resorts, and the second-tier development opportunities are all being shaped by who writes the cheques. This is the version of the story a corporate booker, a real estate investor, or a serious traveller would want.
The structural picture
Three kinds of investor stand behind most of the hotel building in Georgia.
International hotel chains and their partners. The chains usually arrive through a management contract or a franchise with a local owner who holds the real estate. The capital structure on these projects typically combines debt from development banks, the Georgian state’s tax incentives, and the local owner’s equity. The chain brings the brand and the booking system; the owner carries the building.
Georgian groups and developers. Adjara Group (adjaragroup.com) is the most visible Georgian investor in the hospitality sector, with Stamba, Rooms, Fabrika, and a continuing pipeline. Silk Road Group operates a parallel portfolio. Several Tbilisi-based real-estate developers take part in hotel projects alongside their residential pipelines. Their money is domestic, so most of it never appears in the FDI figures at all.
Foreign developers. Foreign capital also arrives through regional developers. In September 2026, for one, Azerbaijan’s PASHA Real Estate Group and Marriott announced a planned Le Méridien of 152 rooms in Tbilisi’s Chugureti district (the companies’ announcement). The port at Anaklia, often mentioned in the same breath, is a state infrastructure project rather than a hotel investment (see The Anaklia deepwater port).
Where the money lands geographically
Four regions see most of the new hotel building.
Tbilisi. The biggest market, with branded hotels at 59.8 percent occupancy in 2025 by STR figures in GNTA’s 2025 overview. Hotel inventory expansion is the visible part, but serviced apartments, conference facilities, mixed-use developments, and adjacent retail and restaurants are also taking capital. The four-cluster hotel geography in The Tbilisi hotel pipeline gives the distribution within the city: Vera, Vake, the Old Town, and the riverside conference belt.
Batumi and the coast. Batumi’s branded hotels were the fullest in the country in 2025, at 73.6 percent occupancy by the same STR figures, which is the case for building there. New five-star and lifestyle properties keep arriving on top of the existing high-end inventory.
Kakheti. Wine-region investment has picked up. Cellar-hotels, vineyard-side villa developments, and the upgrading of existing producers’ visitor facilities are all absorbing investment. The premium cellar-hotel segment (Schuchmann, Lopota, Royal Batoni) is being joined by additional properties at similar or higher price points. See Wine tourism’s quiet revolution for the destination-side view.
The mountain resorts. Gudauri continues to expand on the ski-resort side. Bakuriani received major investment ahead of its 2023 FIS Freestyle World Championships and continues to see hotel and chairlift expansion. Goderdzi, more remote, is a longer-horizon development story. The mountain segment is mainly winter-focused but increasingly developing shoulder-season offerings.
What the second tier looks like
Below the flag-hotel and prestige-cellar level, several second-tier investment categories are worth tracking.
Boutique and lifestyle hotels in the regions. Telavi, Sighnaghi, Kazbegi, Mestia, Kutaisi, and Borjomi are all seeing boutique-property development. The properties are small, but the cumulative effect is meaningful: GNTA counts more than 105 accommodation establishments with about 9,000 beds opened across Georgia in 2024 and 2025, and more than 340, with 38,800 beds, due between 2026 and 2029 (Georgian Tourism in Figures 2025).
Serviced apartments and long-stay product. With long-stay relocation traffic and the growth of remote-work tourism, serviced apartments and short lets have become a category of their own, in Tbilisi especially. GNTA’s overview counts 15,420 Airbnb listings in Georgia in December 2025, with more than 30,000 beds.
Restaurant groups. Adjacent to the hotel investment is a wave of restaurant-group capital. Modern Georgian cuisine has an international audience now, and while the restaurant investment is more fragmented than the hotel investment, it materially supports the destination product.
Spa and wellness. A smaller but growing category. The sulfur-bath modernisation conversation, the development of mountain-based wellness retreats, and the spa-hotel combinations being built in Borjomi and elsewhere are the visible parts.
What is not happening
Two things absent from the FDI flow worth noting honestly.
Mass-market budget hotel investment. Despite the visitor-numbers growth, the mid- and lower-priced hotel inventory has expanded much more slowly than the premium segment. Most regional Georgian visitor markets are served by guesthouses and small independent hotels rather than chain-brand mid-tier properties. This is partly because the premium-segment economics are stronger and partly because the regional Georgian operators in the lower end of the market are not seeking institutional capital.
Major airline equity investment. While flight connectivity has grown (see Tbilisi International Airport: the expansion), there is no significant foreign-airline equity into Georgian Airways or other domestic carriers. The route expansion has come through international carriers adding Tbilisi as a destination, not through equity into Georgian aviation. This may change once the expanded terminal opens.
What this means for the hospitality buyer
For concierges, corporate travel managers, and high-end direct guests trying to predict the experience over the next five years, the investment map tells you what to expect.
More hotel inventory in Tbilisi and Batumi. With 38,800 beds due across the country by 2029, the booking landscape will widen. Hotel rates for repeat corporate guests will be easier to negotiate and group bookings more flexible; corporate chauffeur bookings are set out on their own page.
Better cellar-hotel inventory in Kakheti. The investment going into the wine region means more properties at the Schuchmann and Lopota tier and a developing premium tier above it. A Kakheti wine trip will look different in five years, not in destination but in accommodation quality.
More structured product across the country. The maturity that the investment brings is the structured, branded, internationally comparable experience that high-end international travellers expect. This makes Georgia easier to sell to clients who would not have considered it a decade ago.
A closing note
The cranes over Tbilisi overstate the hotel money: in Geostat’s figures, real estate drew six times as much foreign investment as accommodation and food services did in 2025.
Georgia is growing into the destination it should always have been. If you’re coming to see it for yourself, or to evaluate it as a market, and would like a car, email booking@soitblack.com to talk about a trip.
Related: Georgia’s tourism reset, The Tbilisi hotel pipeline, The Anaklia deepwater port, and Wine tourism’s quiet revolution.