საგანმანათლებლო ტურიზმი და მისი გამოწვევები პანდემიის პირობებში

Abstract

Educational tourism, also known as edu-tourism, is one of the trends that have higher growth in recent years. The aim of the article is to highlight the importance of the educational tourism and the impact of COVID 19 on educational tourists. This is a theoretical research based on the review of appropriate literature, usage of secondary sources, logical construction and the scientific induction. Nowadays, tourists are beginning to give more importance to new ways of knowing different tourist destinations, so the possibilities of learning grow significantly. Educational tourism delineates its boundaries with other types of tourism and education activities. It is one of the famous sub-types of tourism in the world today. Its popularity and necessity in the tourism market increases day by day. To define simply, educational tourism is when the main purpose of the trip is the learning itself. Educational tourism is considered as an essential market segment in the tourism industry and not surprisingly, many countries use it as one of the main earning source. The research revealed that even though definitions of educational tourism and tourists vary, there is still the way to conceptualize the market segment and look at the broad range of activities, such as: school trips, study tours, exchange programs, under and post graduate studies, short courses, language courses and other classic educationrelated activities. It was also found that despite the pandemic compared to other countries, the number of educational tourists leaving Georgia is higher than in previous years.