#SpendYourSummerInGeorgia: popular geopolitics, grassroots activism and tourism marketing against Russia

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article demonstrates the broad-spanning ramifications of tourism marketing in geopolitics and proposes viewing civilian-led social media destination branding campaigns as novel yet important forms of popular geopolitics. The case is the #SpendYourSummerInGeorgia campaign created by Georgian grassroots activists in 2019 following a politicized travel blockade issued by the Kremlin preventing Russians from entering Georgia. #SpendYourSummerInGeorgia was designed to counter the blockade, soliciting an alternative, pro-Western and European tourism audience. It enabled citizens to engage in their country’s foreign relations – a space historically reserved for political elites – yet one now accessed through tourism marketing. This campaign also shaped representations of Georgian collective identity, including those linked to Europe and the Soviet Union, thus ordering social, cultural and political values in the country. Contributing to literature across popular geopolitics, tourism geographies and nation branding, this article uses content analysis and semi-structured interviews to show how tourism was not only impacted by geopolitics but also became its very medium. As popular tourism marketing enters the messy world of geopolitics, this case demonstrates how the stakes for cultivating a strategically favourable collective identity are high, calling for those studying popular geopolitics to have their radar attuned to tourism.