Natalia Bakhtadze, co-founder of the Georgian Ecotourism Association says, that Georgia "could not learn to be smart" even during pandemic and everyone still talks rather than acts effectively.
"We are talking about coping with the challenges and having an extraordinary tourism potential, but neither the state nor the private sector has taken any effective steps yet. We are focused on the demand, but we do not know which demand we anticipate. The world is big, we are small and we will not be able to adapt and satisfy everyone, so we need to start targeting and say what a priority is for us. It is utopia to say that for example only ecotourism will take tourism forward. Mass-tourism will damage our center of attraction. Therefore, we must think about how to diversify resources", Bakhtadze told BMG.
Bakhtadze says that recently a negative trend has started in Georgia, which involves copying tourism services from region to region, which in its turn damages the image of our country.
"Kakhetian wine cellar in Imereti is definitely unacceptable. Kakhetians build the cellar in order to maintain the condition for the wine in the environment they have. And where the humidity and soil acidity are high, you must not "copy" the Kakhetian service directly, it is not a solution. We must first figure out what we want the world to think of us, what we want to sell, and then take action. But just talking cannot move us forward,"- said the co-founder of the Georgian Ecotourism Association.
