The tourism festival -“Tourister” was held in Batumi. The guests of the event discussed tourism legislation and regulations, its policy, interactions between climate change and the tourism sector. The festival was attended by the Deputy Chairperson of the Adjara Tourism Department, Tamar Kaikatsishvili, who, together with her colleagues, spoke about seasonality and strategies for addressing its impacts.

“The goal of the Adjara Tourism Department is to overcome seasonality and promote the region as a four-season tourist destination. One of the main preconditions for attracting tourists to Adjara during non-active seasons is holding different cultural events and providing various tourism products connected with Mountainous Adjara. The ski resort “Goderdzi” is going to be the main tourist attraction in this regard. The place has 133 million investments. In few years, we will have a high-class mountain ski resort with tourism infrastructure. Besides, we are actively working on the creation of the new tourism products in municipalities. At this point we have been doing the Chvana and Chirukhi projects”, stated the Deputy Chairperson of the Adjara Tourism Department, Tamar Kaikatsishvili.

After panel discussions at the forum, field specialists spoke about marketing, culture and business which are directly or obliquely connected with tourism. The festival was attended by the representatives of government and non-government departments and tourist business specialists.

The festival was held on the territory of the “Gate” and “Botanico” clubs, where apart from a tourism forum, regional culinary items and startups were displayed. At the startups forum, the visitors had a chance to observe high-tech initiatives of diverse companies and alternative tourism products. One of the concepts of the “Tourister” festival was the promotion of Adjarian cuisine. In the framework of the fest, they introduced less famous Laz and Mountain Adjarian culinary products.

The festival, which is a mutual project of the “Tourism Institute” and the marketing company “Shindi” will be held every year.