Digital Agritourism as a Hub of Multifaceted Economic Development

Abstract

Rural tourism is considered by UNWTO (united Nation’s World Tourism Organization) as a high-potential direction, the stimulation of which is considered as a factor of economic stability for small and medium businesses (SMEs). The Covid-19 pandemic causes unprecedented damage to tourism sector. The Authorities in many countries responded immediately to the crisis. UN Women organization, together with the Georgian Farmers' Association, submitted a working / draft version bill on supporting measures for agritourism to the Parliamentary Agrarian Committee (still without respond). Moreover, in the article there are considered the perspectives of the abovementioned law, also the prospective of agritourism or rural tourism, and potential of digitalization in indicated sphere. The development of agritourism as an independent direction of tourism will be a kind of multiplier for the economy of both the region and the country. Novelty of suggested research is that digitalization can connect traditional agriculture and modern trends of tourism. With the digitalization and mutual cooperation of the agricultural sector and agritourism, it is possible to offer a completely exclusive product to the international consumer, to create a new industry and to attract additional financial resources from outside the country, for the recovery of the country's economy, and in this meaning agritourism can be interpretated as a kind of export, and this is also novelty of this research. In this regard, agritourism can be considered as one of the alternative ways to promote the multifunctional and sustainable development of the communities and regions of Georgia and whole country as well. Keywords: Tourism, Rural Tourism, Agritourism, Digitalization, Export, Bill.