The President of Georgia is visiting Strasbourg where the traditional Christmas Market is currently being held. He went to the main square of the city with the Deputy Mayor – Navel Rafik and toured the place where the Christmas market will be held by Georgia next year. Mikheil Saakashvili and Navel Rafik emphasized the importance of this market and noted that participation of Georgia in this event is extremely important in terms of popularizing the country. According to Mikheil Saakashvili, the Parliamentary capital of Europe is the best place for us to exhibit and show to the world the best that we have because millions of tourists come to this city every year.

The Strasbourg Mayor’s office traditionally made the final decision after reviewing the applications of several countries. The final decision was made in the favor of Tbilisi, closely competing with Tokyo, Japan. The main criteria for choosing a guest country for the market, is the level of democracy and human rights in the country. The respect of common European values is also important.

Georgians will participate in this event for the first time. Every region of Georgia will be represented at Gutenberg Square, where they will present Georgian products and traditional dishes. Traditional national clothing will also be exhibited there.

The Georgian side will open the market in mid November of next year and close it on December 31. The organizational issues will be dealt with by the Strasbourg Mayor’s office.

Every year various countries are invited as guests. This year Switzerland was the invited guest and accordingly a Swiss village is welcoming the tourists. Poland, Romania, and Norway were represented here in last several years.

The Strasbourg Christmas Market is one of the largest in Europe and it is held every year. The first such market was held in 1570, so it has approximately 450 years of history. The number of tourists will surpass 3 million in the Parliamentary capital of Europe this year.