The Georgian city of Chiatura hosted officials from the National Tourism Administration of Georgia and Imerety regional government on 14 May.

The officials, as well as media representatives, visited the natural and cultural heritage sites of Chiatura and took a ride on Cableway #25, built in 1953, which is the oldest civic cableway still to be in use today. The officials discussed the potential of this cableway for tourism development in Chiatura.

The visit comes as a result of the work of the EU-funded COMUS project, which has  worked actively to attract attention to the cableway and get it listed as a cultural heritage monument. The cableway has now been selected among priority rehabilitation projects by the local stakeholder group. The visit of the tourism sector officials opens up the possibility to integrate Chiatura into national and regional tourism development policies, schemes and programmes, contributing to the diversification of the local economy in the long term and improved socio-economic conditions in the town.

The COMUS project, a joint initiative of the Council of Europe and European Union, is testing new revitalisation strategies in cities and, in particular, historic towns, in Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. Based around community-led processes, COMUS invests in heritage resources as a matter of priority and as a dynamic asset towards progress.

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