The role of ecotourism in sustainable development of Georgian tourism

Abstract

The necessity of environment and development policy consideration in single context has been widely recognized after that “sustainable development” has been identified as a guiding principle of social development.

Discussion of environmental aspects in combination with tourist industry has become one of the main sectoral challenges for many countries.

Under conditions of high pace of live and urbanization engrained in the contemporary world, ecotourism has established as one of the top-priority directions. Both the World Tourism Association and Georgian National Tourism Administration have recognized ecotourism as a priority area. It has turned into very important factor of sustainable development of the world.

Based on the above-mentioned, the work is devoted to preservation of ecotourism potential of Georgia and identification of of measures to be carried out for its development.

Main directins and current problems of ecotourism are described in the work; opportunities for its development are determined; the empiric study is given, as well, which is aimed to disclosure of factors inhibiting and promoting ecoutourism development in Georgia.

Resulting from the mentioned study and analysis of a survey conducted among guides engaged in ecotourism, the urgent issues of subject under study have been determined.   

The main objective of the work is to introduce recommendations elaborated as a result of conclusions drawn based on the study and to use them for development and promotion of ecotourism – one of the most important forms of tourism.