Overview
Within the framework of the 30-year international relationship between the American and Georgian governments, a multi-year programme for the development and promotion of tourism in Georgia was launched by decision of the US government in May 2022. As a direct first measure, this programme provides for the qualified training of multipliers in the country itself. The two main areas of focus are the hospitality industry, i.e. hotel management, and training in tourism and destination management. For the preliminary project of a 10-day training course each, the training centres Les Roches (Marbella, Spain) were selected for the hospitality course and the HSLU-ITM for the course "Sustainable Destination Management".
Both courses were designed in close consultation between USAID Georgia, the Hospitality Management Institute (Tbilisi/Georgia) and the two aforementioned trainers in Marbella and Lucerne and were held in the 2nd half of September 2022. In both courses, 6 selected and proven tourism/hotel experts from Georgia each received further training in an intensive "train the trainer" course. In the course "Sustainable Destination Management" under the direction of Urs Wagenseil and the active cooperation of the research assistant Bettina Mandel (both ITM), great importance was attached to the combination of theory/knowledge and practical transfer, in line with the philosophy of the HSLU. To this end, three one-day excursions were also carried out to various rural regions close to the capital in order to examine the specific learning content on site and to derive strengths and weaknesses, or to identify potential for further development. It was also valuable that a senior staff member of the Georgian National Tourism Agency was present at this course. This made it possible to initiate initial inputs in the direction of national tourism strategy and marketing.
