IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i2p410-d197728.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Rural Tourism in Georgia in Transition: Challenges for Regional Sustainability

Author

Listed:
  • Lela Khartishvili

    (Institute of Landscape Development, Recreation and Conservation Planning; BOKU University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna. Peter Jordan-Str. 82, 1190 Wien, Austria
    Tourism Hospitality Management Department, Faculty of Economics and Business Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. University Str., 0186 Tbilisi, Georgia)

  • Andreas Muhar

    (Institute of Landscape Development, Recreation and Conservation Planning; BOKU University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna. Peter Jordan-Str. 82, 1190 Wien, Austria)

  • Thomas Dax

    (Federal Institute for Less-Favoured and Mountainous Areas, Vienna, Austria; Marxergasse 2, 1030 Wien, Austria)

  • Ioseb Khelashvili

    (Tourism Hospitality Management Department, Faculty of Economics and Business Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. University Str., 0186 Tbilisi, Georgia)

Abstract

Tourism in rural regions of Georgia has a long tradition; however, many structures had been developed during Soviet times under the framework of a centrally planned economy and forced collectivism. Today, Rural Tourism is widely discussed by the national government and international cooperation partners as a means for regional development and as an alternative source of employment in agricultural areas and mountain regions. The purpose of this study is to develop suggestions for the institutionalization of Rural Tourism in the country and to propose relevant actions. Research methods comprised a document analysis, qualitative interviews with various stakeholders, and focus group discussions. We analyzed recent tendencies and challenges of rural tourism development in Georgia with a focus on the concept of community-based tourism and integrated rural development. We also review the challenges of the current structure of tourism marketing on the national level with regard to Rural Tourism products. The key findings of the research include recommendations to create a central leading structure for rural tourism at the national level, which will work on strategic issues and general norms of Rural Tourism. At the same time, we propose the development of destination management organizations, which will integrate general provisions in regional legislation and marketing in close cooperation with local stakeholders.

Suggested Citation

  • Lela Khartishvili & Andreas Muhar & Thomas Dax & Ioseb Khelashvili, 2019. "Rural Tourism in Georgia in Transition: Challenges for Regional Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-20, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:2:p:410-:d:197728
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/2/410/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/2/410/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Petrick, Martin & Weingarten, Peter (ed.), 2004. "The role of agriculture in Central and Eastern European rural development: engine of change or social buffer?," Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector in Transition Economies, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), volume 25, number 93023.
    2. Oedl-Wieser, Theresia & Dax, Thomas & Fischer, Michael, 2017. "A new approach for participative rural development in Georgia – reflecting transfer of knowledge and enhancing innovation in a non-European Union context," Studies in Agricultural Economics, Research Institute for Agricultural Economics, vol. 119(1), April.
    3. Phillip, Sharon & Hunter, Colin & Blackstock, Kirsty, 2010. "A typology for defining agritourism," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 754-758.
    4. Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude & Bradley, David & Pohl, Christian & Rist, Stephan & Wiesmann, Urs, 2006. "Implications of transdisciplinarity for sustainability research," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 119-128, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Stefan Applis, 2022. "Crises around Concepts of Hospitality in the Mountainous Region of Svaneti in the North of Georgia," Tourism and Hospitality, MDPI, vol. 3(2), pages 1-19, May.
    2. Elena Cruz-Ruiz & Gorka Zamarreño-Aramendia & Elena Ruiz-Romero de la Cruz, 2020. "Key Elements for the Design of a Wine Route. The Case of La Axarquía in Málaga (Spain)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-19, November.
    3. Johannes Johannes & Syahmardi Yacob & Johni Paul Karolus Pasaribu, 2022. "Examining the behavioral intentions of tourism destination communities:A critical approach to smart rural tourism information system," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 11(2), pages 329-335, March.
    4. Thomas Dax & Oliver Tamme, 2023. "Attractive Landscape Features as Drivers for Sustainable Mountain Tourism Experiences," Tourism and Hospitality, MDPI, vol. 4(3), pages 1-16, June.
    5. Leanard Otwori Juma & Aniko Khademi-Vidra, 2019. "Community-Based Tourism and Sustainable Development of Rural Regions in Kenya; Perceptions of the Citizenry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-23, August.
    6. Giorgi Gogitidze & Nana Nadareishvili & Rezhen Harun & Iulia D. Arion & Iulia C. Muresan, 2022. "Exploring Residents’ Perceptions towards Tourism Development—A Case Study of the Adjara Mountain Area," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-18, December.
    7. Gorka Zamarreño-Aramendia & Elena Cruz-Ruiz & Elena Ruiz-Romero de la Cruz, 2021. "Sustainable Economy and Development of the Rural Territory: Proposal of Wine Tourism Itineraries in La Axarquía of Malaga (Spain)," Economies, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-21, March.
    8. Andreea M. Crăciun & Ștefan Dezsi & Florin Pop & Pintea Cecilia, 2022. "Rural Tourism—Viable Alternatives for Preserving Local Specificity and Sustainable Socio-Economic Development: Case Study—“Valley of the Kings” (Gurghiului Valley, Mureș County, Romania)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-31, December.
    9. Gangmin Weng & Yue Pan & Jianpu Li, 2021. "Study on the Influencing Factors and Acting Path of the Sustainable Development of Rural Tourism Based on EEAM-ISM Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-16, May.
    10. Said Keliwar & Musdalifah Musdalifah & A. Rinto Dwiatmojo, 2022. "Rural Tourism Development in Jembayan Tengah Village East Kalimantan-Indonesia," Technium Social Sciences Journal, Technium Science, vol. 38(1), pages 502-513, December.
    11. Nafiah Ariyani & Akhmad Fauzi, 2023. "Pathways toward the Transformation of Sustainable Rural Tourism Management in Central Java, Indonesia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-19, February.
    12. Adis Puška & Anđelka Štilić & Miroslav Nedeljković & Aleksandar Maksimović, 2022. "Dex-Based Evaluation of Sustainable Rural Tourism in Bosnia and Herzegovina," Tourism and Hospitality, MDPI, vol. 3(4), pages 1-12, December.
    13. Irina-Teodora MANOLESCU & Mihai TALMACIU, 2021. "Resilience and adaptability of tourism in EaP region - a systematic literature review," CES Working Papers, Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, vol. 13(3), pages 260-290, November.
    14. Bojan Đerčan & Dragica Gatarić & Milka Bubalo Živković & Marija Belij Radin & Danijela Vukoičić & Bojana Kalenjuk Pivarski & Tamara Lukić & Petar Vasić & Milena Nikolić & Miloš Lutovac & Milena Lutova, 2023. "Evaluating Farm Tourism Development for Sustainability: A Case Study of Farms in the Peri-Urban Area of Novi Sad (Serbia)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-21, August.
    15. Sophie Ghvanidze & Linda Bitsch & Alvaro Elze & Jon H. Hanf & Soo Kang, 2022. "Why Travel to Georgia? Motivations, Experiences, and Country’s Image Perceptions of Wine Tourists," Tourism and Hospitality, MDPI, vol. 3(4), pages 1-17, October.
    16. Chris Roberts & Joel Reynolds & Mary Jo Dolasinski, 2022. "Meta-Analysis of Tourism Sustainability Research: 2019–2021," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-18, March.
    17. F.J. Cristófol & Elena Cruz-Ruiz & Gorka Zamarreño-Aramendia, 2021. "Transmission of Place Branding Values through Experiential Events: Wine BC Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-21, March.
    18. Setiawan Priatmoko & Moaaz Kabil & Ali Akaak & Zoltán Lakner & Csaba Gyuricza & Lóránt Dénes Dávid, 2023. "Understanding the Complexity of Rural Tourism Business: Scholarly Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-21, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Axel Tonini & Roel Jongeneel, 2009. "The distribution of dairy farm size in Poland: a markov approach based on information theory," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(1), pages 55-69.
    2. Paul Stock & Rob J.F. Burton, 2011. "Defining Terms for Integrated (Multi-Inter-Trans-Disciplinary) Sustainability Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 3(8), pages 1-24, July.
    3. Alieh Abadi & Mehdi Khakzand, 2022. "Extracting the qualitative dimensions of agritourism for the sustainable development of Charqoli village in Iran: the promotion of vernacular entrepreneurship and environment-oriented preservation per," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(11), pages 12609-12671, November.
    4. Nicolás Ruiz, Néstor & Suárez Alonso, María Luisa & Vidal-Abarca, María Rosario, 2021. "Contributions of dry rivers to human well-being: A global review for future research," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    5. Tong Wu & Shida Rastegari Henneberry & John N. Ng’ombe & Richard T. Melstrom, 2020. "Chinese Demand for Agritourism in Rural America," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-11, April.
    6. Arora-Jonsson, Seema, 2016. "Does resilience have a culture? Ecocultures and the politics of knowledge production," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 98-107.
    7. Vandermeulen, V. & Van Huylenbroeck, G., 2008. "Designing trans-disciplinary research to support policy formulation for sustainable agricultural development," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 352-361, October.
    8. Katharina Löhr & Christian Hochmuth & Frieder Graef & Jane Wambura & Stefan Sieber, 2017. "Conflict management programs in trans-disciplinary research projects: the case of a food security project in Tanzania," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 9(6), pages 1189-1201, December.
    9. Yung-Lun Liu & Jui-Te Chiang & Pen-Fa Ko, 2023. "The benefits of tourism for rural community development," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-12, December.
    10. Frame, Bob & Brown, Judy, 2008. "Developing post-normal technologies for sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 225-241, April.
    11. Manuel Rivera, 2013. "Political Criteria for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Selection and the Role of the Urban Dimension," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(12), pages 1-18, November.
    12. Dubois, Charline & Cawley, Mary & Schmitz, Serge, 2017. "The tourist on the farm: A ‘muddled’ image," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 298-311.
    13. Štefan Bojnec, 2010. "Rural Tourism, Rural Economy Diversification, and Sustainable Development," Academica Turistica - Tourism and Innovation Journal, University of Primorska Press, vol. 3(1-2), pages 7-15.
    14. Chris Phelan & Richard Sharpley, 2012. "Exploring entrepreneurial skills and competencies in farm tourism," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 27(2), pages 103-118, March.
    15. Tim Theissen & Annette Otte & Rainer Waldhardt, 2022. "High-Mountain Landscape Classification to Analyze Patterns of Land Use and Potential Natural Vegetation," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-20, July.
    16. Emilio Chiodo & Héctor Luis Adriani & Fernando Pablo Navarro & Rita Salvatore, 2019. "Collaborative Processes and Collective Impact in Tourist Rural Villages—Insights from a Comparative Analysis between Argentinian and Italian Cases," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-22, January.
    17. Lundgren, Jakob, 2022. "Unity through disunity: Strengths, values, and tensions in the disciplinary discourse of ecological economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    18. Engbers, Moritz, 2019. "Räumliche Transformationsprozesse durch transdisziplinäre Fallstudien verstehen und gestalten," Forschungsberichte der ARL: Aufsätze, in: Abassiharofteh, Milad & Baier, Jessica & Göb, Angelina & Thimm, Insa & Eberth, Andreas & Knaps, Falc (ed.), Räumliche Transformation: Prozesse, Konzepte, Forschungsdesigns, volume 10, pages 206-216, ARL – Akademie für Raumentwicklung in der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft.
    19. Salvatore Ammirato & Alberto Michele Felicetti & Cinzia Raso & Bruno Antonio Pansera & Antonio Violi, 2020. "Agritourism and Sustainability: What We Can Learn from a Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-18, November.
    20. Zeigermann, Ulrike & Böcher, Michael, 2020. "Challenges for bridging the gap between knowledge and governance in sustainability policy – The case of OECD ‘Focal Points’ for Policy Coherence for Development," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:2:p:410-:d:197728. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.