Georgia 4th among world’s fastest-growing tourism destinations
Georgia has taken the fourth position as the world’s most fast-growing tourism destinations in the World Tourism Organisation’s (UNWTO) 2017 report.
The report reads that in 2017 the number of tourists particularly increased for trips to Egypt, Togo, Vietnam and Georgia.
For Egypt, the number of tourists increased by 55 per cent.
In Togo, by 46 per cent.
In Vietnam by 29 per cent.
In Georgia by 27.9 per cent.
Georgia stands above France, Spain, Turkey and other countries where the tourism field is especially well-developed in terms of pace of growth.
This is the first time that Georgia has taken a leading position as a quickly growing tourist country in the UNWTO report. In 2016 Georgia was the first in Europe as a tourism destination, now we are in the top five as the world’s fast growing tourism destinations, which is a great achievement,” head of the Georgian National Tourism Administration Giorgi Chogovadze said.
The report reads that international tourist arrivals grew by seven per cent in 2017, the highest increase since 2010.
The UNWTO is the United Nations agency responsible for the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism.
Batumi to Host International Rural Tourism Conference
The second International Conference of Rural Tourism will be held in Batumi on October 19-20. The main topic of the conference will be “Rural Tourism as Business”.
The conference will present presentations, reports and seminars by invited Georgian and foreign experts, and introductory practical visits will be arranged on tourist routes throughout the Adjara region.
The topics of the Conference include:
Village and village life as a tourist product, business and source of income;
Innovative services and tourist products to maintain rural / village authenticity in parallel with innovative services;
Rural tourism development prospects and challenges in the Adjara region/tourist infrastructure in rural areas;
General standards of rural tourism (service standards, types of family guest houses, etc.);
Georgian hospitality and hospitality as a business;
State programs in rural tourism development in Georgia and other countries;
Competition in rural tourism, positive and negative impacts and sides of the competition;
Attracting tourists in rural areas and advertising.
The conference will be attended by the owners of family guest houses, tourist agencies, the representatives of the different fields of rural and eco-tourism, as well as the representatives of governmental and non-governmental organizations.
“In the Adjara region, rural tourism is at the initial stage of development, so it is important for us to get acquainted with the international experience and successful business examples of rural tourism.
“Although the locals of Adjara region have started to actively engage in tourism sphere and the number of the providers of family guest houses and other tourist services is significantly increasing, there is still a lot of work in the direction of tourism business development,” said Tinatin Zoidze, Director of Tourism Products Development Agency of Ajara Tourism Department. “Accordingly, we need to get acquainted with other people’s experiences and use it in practice. This is the main goal of our conference and I think that we will have interesting speakers this year, too.”