NEW HIKING TRAILS DEVELOPED AND TOURISM OPPORTUNITIES PROMOTED IN GEORGIA AND ARMENIA BORDERING REGIONS
Georgia and Armenia have great potential for rural and adventure tourism — especially in the bordering regions of the two countries. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting restrictions, the tourism sector experienced unprecedented disruptions. As the economy recovers, it also unveils new opportunities in the outdoor tourism market segment, such as increased demand for outdoor activities. To utilize these opportunities, the USAID Economic Development, Governance, and Enterprise Growth (EDGE), in partnership with People in Need (PIN) Georgia, created a network of rural and adventure tourism stakeholders and supporting actors in the region and built their capacity to attract visitors to these regions.
PIN Georgia worked closely with local partners and scouted and developed new hiking trails in Akhalkalaki municipality and Mtskheta-Mtianeti region of Georgia and the Shirak and Lori regions of Armenia and connected them to the growing Transcaucasian Trail initiative. In August and September, the Transcaucasian Trail of Georgia scouted 122.9 kilometers in Aragvi, and 200.8 kilometers in Akhalkalaki, while their counterpart in Armenia scouted 102 kilometers in Shirak and 110 kilometers in Lori region from September through November. Hundred and ninety kilometers of these trails are already added to the open-source mapping database Open Street Map. These trails will act as a “honeypot” to attract new visitors to the rural areas. The local enterprises received necessary capacity building, small grant assistance, and promotional material to maximize their business opportunities.
Ana Panchulidze, a local activist from the Aragvi Local Action Group, shares her impressions: “I love hiking, and on weekends I always try my best to go somewhere in the mountains. It was the first time I attended the trails and outdoor tourism training, but the practical training on trails development and maintenance in Borjomi exceeded expectations. Mtskheta-Mtianeti region has a lot of potential, and I think the newly marked trails will benefit the tourism development in our region. Young people still living in Aragvi have the strength to mobilizing resources to further develop and maintain the new trails in the future.”
A key focus of the Transcaucasian Trail: Promoting Cross-Border Tourism grant is local and regional networking and sustainability of the activities. Local Action Groups (LAGs) and Women Resource Centers (WRCs) played a substantial role in bringing together key public, private, and civil society sectors in their respective regions. They facilitated the initial local buy-in for the new hiking trail developments and will coordinate trail maintenance in the future.
Sergey Khachatryan, Vice President of the LAG Akhalkalaki, was involved in all stages of the trails scouting process and development in the Akhalkalaki region and coordinated the engagement and active participation of local businesses and stakeholders, such as local accommodation and tourism service providers in the region. “We [LAG Akhalkalaki] provide economic development support to SMEs in tourism development, environment, and nature protection. Although Akhalkalaki is lagging in tourism development in compared to other regions of Georgia, the LAG is actively working to enhance the tourism offerings and supports local tourism SMEs.” The collaboration of LAG Akhalkalaki with PIN and Transcaucasian Trail Georgia started in the spring of 2022. It focused on training that engaged local people, especially young people, in tourism development and promotion. “We participated in the four-day practical training for trail development and maintenance of trails that was very beneficial. We also facilitated 16 local tourism SMEs and service providers to participate in the tourism marketing and promotion training that enhanced their capacities. This was a very successful collaboration, and we are constantly looking for opportunities and initiatives to further develop the tourism capacity and socio-economic prosperity of the region.”
Given the relatively low profile of the region on the tourism map in Georgia, promotional visits were organized for 15 tour operators and guides that explored the region, got introduced to the tourism offerings and established connections with the local tourism service providers. They visited Kartsakhi/Khozafina lake — an area included in the new trails, and visited the guest houses alongside the newly identified trails. Nanita Zautashvili, representative of the tour operator Ntravel Kutaisi participated in the promotional visits: “Visiting the Samtskhe-Javakheti region was the beginning of a new adventure. Different landscapes, climate, and beautiful lakes left an indelible impression on me. On this tour I actually rediscovered this beautiful region with its magnificent lakes and beauty. Until now, I didn’t pay much attention to trails. However, the promo tour pushed me to start thinking about it. I am glad to have had the opportunity to visit these trails and the tourist services around them. My future plan is to organize some tours in this region. I appeal to all my local and foreign tourists to join me because the Akhalkalaki is rich in beautiful sights.”
As part of the promotion of the Armenian bordering regions, PIN Armenia organized marketing and promotion training for 20 Armenian tourism SMEs and service providers from Lori and Shirak regions to enhance their knowledge and capacity for tourism promotion. Ten participating SMEs also worked with a consultant and developed customized marketing plans. In addition, PIN assisted 16 tourism SMEs from these regions in Georgia and Armenia with promotional materials. For example, PIN Armenia engaged the specialized travel blog Absolute Armenia, and their bloggers visited SMEs in Lori and Shirak regions and created articles and posts to promote their activities on their web page and Facebook.
Arevik Yeghiazaryan, the co-founder of WINNET Vanadzor (Women Resource Center) in Syunik, Armenia explains, “The marketing training gave us new prospects of developing the social entrepreneurship ideas we had for the master classes for tourists. We were able to design the services based on the knowledge we got from the training and develop a marketing strategy that will be a road map for us in this process. Also, due to the individual coaching, we have polished the strategy and came up with many ideas on how to make the organization more sustainable through this social enterprise and be able to support more women and youth. The visit and article of Absolute Armenia was an additional impulse in this process because, as a result of that, many people got interested in our services.”
Another participant in the marketing and promotion trainings is Hasmik Petrosyan, the representative of Gohar brand, “Thanks to the marketing support [training, strategy development, coaching, promotion], we got to know professional experts in the field, an article has been posted about us on Absolute Armenia Facebook page, and we hosted tour guides and journalists on a familiarization visit. We had very positive reactions to those visits. We benefited from the posts on social networks, and the recognition of the Gohar brand increased.”
These bordering regions of Armenia and Georgia are now on the radars of the tour operators in the two countries, and are more visible to regional and international tourists. The marketing and promotion of the newly developed hiking trails will attract more tourists to these regions. This will bring the much-needed economic impetus for the local communities, including the guesthouses, tourism service providers and local artisans living alongside the newly marked hiking trails.
