Challenges of tourism cluster formation in Racha region (Georgia) (ტურიზმის კლასტერის ფორმირების გამოწვევები რაჭაში (საქართველო))

Abstract

Racha, one of the Georgia’s beautiful regions, faces many challenges. Due to the existing challenges (population structure, size, and ageing) in our opinion, tourism can be considered as a vital industry that can enhance the speedy recovery of the local economy. As a destination inhabited since the Stone Age, Racha may again become an interesting place of discoveries. Due to the region’s potential, many types of tourism can be developed in Racha: ethnographic, archaeological, speleological, health-recreational, religious, rural, wine, gastronomic, adventure, and others. It should be noted that the feedback from the respondents and the SWOT analysis of tourism development in the Racha region are fully consistent with each other. Therefore, the paper examines and presents a cluster analysis of tourism based on a systemic vision of the field. In the article, we also wish to highlight the opportunities for rural tourism development that the EU also offers to the pre-accession countries. As a good practice of project examples, we present the cases from Croatia and Slovenia, where several renovations and reconstructions of local farms were financed, turning them into tourist farms that acquired tourist apartments, swimming pools and barbecue areas. The projects also supported activities on the farms, such as the organization of unique horseback riding in nature and programs such as archery, tasting of wine, cheese, prosciutto and other gastronomic delicacies of the region, picking olives, grapes, asparagus. Recently, projects have focused on digital transformation in the field of tourist services in rural areas. Finally, we mention the importance of the karstic world in the context of the protection of the natural environment and its importance for the development of tourism. For this purpose, we have presented the projects of Slovenian karst caves and pointed out the importance of postgraduate education in karstology, which is carried out in Slovenia.