Our respondent came to Georgia from Norway 11 years ago and decided to settle in Svaneti. Richard Baerug is currently the owner of Ushba Grand Hotel situated in the Becho village in Svaneti, he hosts visitors from countries like the United States, Austria, Switzerland etc.

As Mr. Baerug tells BM.GE, he also offers tours around Svaneti to the hotel visitors. According to him, in order to make the Svanetian villages even more visible and create livelihoods for the local villages, those villages need to be further popularized.

Therefore, Mr. Baerug decided to create a roadmap for the tourists and the GRETA project co-financed by the EU, Austria and Sweden helped him do just that.

“We tried and received funding, which is used for printing a new book, which will contain hiking routes of both Svaneti and Racha. I believe that this project will yield a concrete result in terms of tourism development in the region, especially for small villages” – co-founder of Ushba hotel Richard Baerug says.

He also says that at this stage the book authored by him includes touristic routes. Richard Baerug’s roadmap, which made information on less known routes in Svaneti and Racha available to tourists, is being printed with the donors’ support.

With the support from the GRETA project funded by the EU, Austria and Sweden, a total of 120 hiking trails have been included in one book.

“Information is crucial as it should draw tourists to Svaneti. I believe that a professionally compiled roadmap with illustrations, maps and descriptions of all those assets that this region possesses is very important, especially since this roadmap will be available abroad as well,” –Manager of Sustainable Tourism Component of the GRETA project Irakli Kutsia says.

GRETA project co-financed by the EU, Austria and Sweden supports development of sustainable tourism in Georgia’s mountainous areas. Two major trainings for individuals interested in adventure tourism have already been conducted under the project. The participants were trained both in the hiking trail marking and their maintenance.

Besides, hiking trail guides were retrained in accordance with international standards. At the same time, entrepreneurs working in the regional tourism sector are supported by donors.

“GRETA project also works on sustainable mountain tourism development. We have 32 small and medium enterprises in this area that we support. For example, we support them in equipping their sites so that they are able to offer tourists their services,” – Project Leader Ricardo Montanari says.

For reference, GRETA project is aimed at supporting business environment in the country so that additional revenue opportunities are created in such sectors of Georgian economy as mountain tourism and organic agriculture.

This material has been prepared by BMG, it represents its intellectual property and does not necessarily express the viewpoints of the EU, Austria and Sweden.

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