Abstract

In Armenia and Georgia, tourism has become part of the development strategies that aim to revitalize those mountain areas experiencing a rural exodus and anemic economic structures. Association agreements between the European Union (EU) and Georgia (2014) and the EU and Armenia (2018) promote community-based tourism (CBT), emphasizing the importance of facilitating cooperation between stakeholders and inclusion of local communities. This study describes the current application of CBT in Georgia and Armenia to elucidate the understanding and perception of the concept by different stakeholders and to provide recommendations for the development of comprehensive CBT practices in the South Caucasus. We used qualitative methods within our research. Our overall analysis includes policy documents and semistructured interviews with tourism and rural development authorities, civil society organizations, and entrepreneurs. Our key findings reveal the various factors that influence the sustainable development of CBT projects, especially in mountainous areas. We recommend integrating tourism and community development practices, elaborating specific guidelines for CBT projects, and filling the knowledge gap of community development facilitators regarding tourism practices. We also suggest focusing more on diversifying community-based products to expand cooperation among service providers.

Highlights

  • The association agreement (AA) between the European Union (EU) and Georgia (AA 2014) and the EU–Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA 2017) promote the ‘‘development and promotion of, inter alia, community-based tourism’’ (AA 2014:116)

  • This paper focuses on tourism development projects recently initiated by international organizations in the mountainous areas of Georgia and Armenia

  • Project managers even noted that the term community-based tourism (CBT) does not exist in project-related documents and guidelines and that they accepted CBT as a term proposed in the Western world, which had been included in the AAs per the request of the EU

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Summary

Introduction

The association agreement (AA) between the European Union (EU) and Georgia (AA 2014) and the EU–Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA 2017) promote the ‘‘development and promotion of, inter alia, community-based tourism’’ (AA 2014:116). It emphasizes the engagement of local communities in the process of planning and implementing tourism, including equality in decision-making (Khartishvili et al 2019). There is a knowledge gap with respect to what the community-based tourism (CBT) concept means in these countries Tourism in both countries today differs from the structures common during Soviet times and is going through a transition period because of pressures from international tourists, who demand high-quality competitive tourism experiences, especially in mountainous areas. Several international initiatives are facilitating this transition and supporting links between local service providers and tourism operators (Bakhtadze-Englaender 2019)

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