In line with Mr Saakashvili's pledge to increase the number of foreign visitors to Georgia, on December 24th he called on businessmen to invest in the construction of hotels in Mestia, the main provincial town of the mountainous region of Svaneti, which is one of the country's main tourist attractions. Mr Saakashvili said that the government would offer investors a plot of land for the symbolic sum of Lari1 (about 60 US cents) in exchange for building hotels in the region. Mr Saakashvili expressed the hope that the region would host at least 500,000 tourists in four years. However, during 2010 there was some resistance from residents of Svaneti, who claim that the government has been ignoring traditional property rights in a bid to build hotels and attract tourists.