The European Youth Olympic Festival in Tbilisi – a project developing touristic potential and educating youth of Georgia (in the context of teaching English for Tourism Purposes – ETP at higher education settings)

Abstract

The European Youth Olympic Festival in Tbilisi – a project developing touristic potential and educating youth of Georgia (in the context of teaching English for Tourism Purposes – ETP at higher education settings) Georgia – a small country in the post Soviet space, striving to become the agent of change through having carried out a considerable amount of reforms in education, international security, economic, juridical, health and social, penitentiary systems in order to integrate with Europe and European values hosted the European Youth Festival (EYOF) 2015. As the European Olympic Committee claims EYOF is not just a sport event, it is “a pride of the European Olympic Committee with 23 years of tradition, a first Olympic experience for young athletes; a take-off platform for future sports stars; a great opportunity for European cities; an important means of promoting sport and Olympic values; a European get-together; a meeting point for young athletes from 49 National Olympic Committees; an opportunity to educate and motivate youth and the general public to do sport and adopt a healthy life style” [The European Olympic Committees]. In order to organize the event on an international level, host it properly, attract contacts and ensure everything runs smoothly to make the project successful and create a platform for other tourism-related ones that Georgia aims to implement in the future (such as a new city Lazika, Kars Highway, Batumi Highway, Poti Airport, etc.), along with other skills our youth (graduates of tourism departments in particular) need to know English for Specific (Tourism) Purposes. English proficiency is required in all professional areas but it becomes essential in the tourist industry because of its specific characteristics. The main objective of the English departments at higher education settings/universities in Georgia that teach English for Tourism is to ensure that ETP courses impart the key communicative skills that are most useful to graduates in their chosen careers. Tourism projects, research and teaching relies on strong links with the sphere of tourism due to the applied nature of the discipline. The presented paper, alongside highlighting a large scale EYOF project thoroughly, performs specificities that include identification of the knowledge and technical skill competencies ELT teachers need to develop in order to successfully teach tourismrelated ESP and specific curriculum recommendations for the education program.