GEORGIA: Diversify tourist attractions in the Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park

Field of Studies: Tourism, Marketing, Tourism Product Development, Communication
Language: English & Russian (optional)
Number of Participants: 2

Scheduled time of the internship: 3 months between Mid-July and Mid-October 2013

The Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park, located in central Georgia, is one of the largest of its kind in Europe. It covers more than 85,000 hectares of native forest, sub-alpine, alpine meadows and is home to rare species of flora and fauna. The park is also the first national park in the Caucasus corresponding to international standards of nature protection. Established in 1995, it became a member of the European Network of Protected Areas – Pan Park in 2007, guaranteeing the highest level of nature protection and sustainable development of tourism.

Aside from nature-based tourism, the park offers environmental education to schools and interested groups and has established a visitor-oriented infrastructure which includes health spas, a ski-centre and the Ktsia-Tabatskhuri high elevation lake area. By attracting tourists to the region, the Park actively helps decreasing the high unemployment rate in the region and creating new income sources.

The goal of this internship is to diversify tourism opportunities in the Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park. The interns will assess the current tourism products and prepare suggestions on how to improve them. They will further prepare plans to diversify and develop the Park’s tourism activities. They are encouraged to propose new tours and services. For this project, the interns will be joined by a local participant.
The GLEN-participants should have experience in tourism management as well as marketing, planning and tourism product development. Russian skills are an asset. The organization offers a shared workspace and internet access, but the GLEN-participants should bring their own computers.

The scheduled time for the internship is 3 months between Mid-July and Mid-October 2013. Training and seminars prior to the internship will be held in English.

The tandem will be formed by a Latvian participant and a German/Swiss participant.

Proposed by: Natia Muladze (Chief of Administrative Division, BK National Park)

Number of the internship:  5000300608