Tourism development inside and adjacent to Machakhela National Park

Appropriate tourism development is an important means and opportunity for Protected areas (PA) and communities located adjacent to them to meet their aims and needs.

 

In the case of the Protected Areas, the aims are:

- to provide a recreational service to visitors

- to increase public awareness and understanding of the importance of conservation

- to generate incomes that enhance management and strengthen sustainable financing for that purpose.

 

In the case of local communities, the aim is to increase sustainable incomes, improve and diversify livelihoods.

 

In both cases, the emphasis is on “appropriate” tourism, i.e. tourism that does not overwhelm or degrade the fundamental tourism attraction (i.e. the pristine nature and cultural landscape). In the PA’s case, there is also an emphasis on educational and awareness aims. This requires that tourism development is carefully planned and focuses on maximizing overall longterm benefits, rather than short term financial benefits.

 

In this context, project's support concentrated initially on developing a sound strategic vision for the Ajara PA system as a whole and individual colchic forest PAs in particular. On this basis, appropriate tourism development was supported on the ground both in the new Machakhela NP and generally in the valley.

  • Existence of well-developed tourism sector on the Black Sea coast and generally “pro-tourism” policy of the Ajara and Georgian government
  • Development of a long-term tourism development policy that attempted to balance benefits with core conservation aims helped to build initial consensus and understanding of issues and approaches within Ajara-level tourism actors and national PA actor - the Agency of PAs
  • Use of regionally-based contractors helped to ensure incorporation of the input and experience of the existing tourism enitities

  • There is a very significant opportunity for colchic forest PAs to increase visitor numbers based on their nature values alone, without investments in substantial infrastructure – the primary “marketing value" of PA's are their intrinsic scenic and nature values, not artificial “attractions” which may be inappropriate.
  • Tourism operators are often focused on quantity of service and not quality - for ecologically and culturally sensitive destinations like Machakheli, tour operators need to prioritize sustainability criteria and focus on quality over quantity.
  • Individual consultations and trainings on the job appear as a most successful method and acceptable for locals in terms of capacity building.
  • Management of PA should build more intensive com­mu­nication with local community, involve them in decision making process for product development. Macha­khela NP should be communicated by Agency of PA, local government and tourism department of Ajara as integral part of the Valley. Tourism development strategies and action plans should be communicated to local community