Adventure Tourism in Georgia: Opportunities for Re

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the rural and journey tourism sector in Ga and Armenia. Nevertheless, as the financial state recovers, new prospects are emerging in the tourism industry. With bigger global desire for out of doors pursuits and more robust domestic and regional tourism markets, People today in Will need (PIN) Ga, with funding from USAID Financial Advancement, Governance, and Organization Progress (EDGE), created a community of rural and adventure tourism stakeholders and assistance actors in the area.

To bring in readers to these new tourism industry segments, PIN Georgia has scouted and made new hiking trails in the Akhalkalaki municipality and the Mtskheta-Mtianeti (Aragvi) locations in Ga, and the Shirak and Lori areas in Armenia, and related them to the growing Transcaucasian Trail initiative. The trails, which act as a “honeypot” to appeal to new site visitors to these rural locations, have acquired needed capacity making, little grant support, and marketing substance to optimize organization possibilities.

Area companions, such as the Neighborhood Motion Groups (LAGs) and Women of all ages Useful resource Facilities (WRCs), performed a sturdy function in bringing jointly vital stakeholders from public, personal, and civil society sectors in their respective locations. They facilitated the first neighborhood obtain-in for the development of the new climbing trails and will coordinate path maintenance in the foreseeable future.

Promotional visits ended up organized for 15 tour operators and guides to explore the region, get launched to the tourism offerings, and build connections with nearby services companies. The tour bundled a go to to Kartsakhi Lake (also identified as Lake Khozapini), an area included in the new trails, and the guest houses alongside these newly recognized trails.

The collaboration of LAG Akhalkalaki with PIN Ga and Transcaucasian Trail commenced last year, concentrating on training that engaged regional folks, specifically younger people, in tourism advancement and promotion. 

“This was a extremely effective collaboration, and we are constantly on the lookout for possibilities and initiatives to establish more capability and socio-financial probable of the area,” said Sergey Khachatryan, Vice President of the LAG Akhalkalaki.

The new climbing trails have presently shown assure in attracting readers and supporting tourism growth in the area. Nanita Zautashvili, the tour operator of Ntravel from Kutaisi, mentioned: “The advertising of vacationer trails for the growth and assist of tourism is very required for our nation. Until eventually now, I didn’t fork out a great deal attention to trails. Nevertheless, the promo tour pushed me to get started thinking about it.”

Discover the hidden gems of rural and journey tourism in Ga and Armenia with these new mountaineering trails and the assist of area companions and the Transcaucasian Path initiative.