On March 27, 2015, an event dedicated to the certificates award ceremony was held at the Farmers Extension and Tourism Center located in borough Tsagveri. Certificates were awarded to the local guesthouse owners having completed the training course in Rural Tourism.
The training course was conducted by the Biological Farming Association Elkana during November-December 2014 and January 2015. 18 guesthouse owners from Tsagveri district villages participated. The certificates were awarded by the manager of the UNDP project “Promote Sustainable Livelihoods and Responsible Attitude to Environment“– Ms. Lali Meskhi and experts of the association Elkana- Ms. Manana Gigauri and Ms. Nana Kartvelishvili.
Implementation of the project “Promote Sustainable Livelihoods and Responsible Attitude to Environment“ has been commenced in Tsagveri district villages in summer 2012. The association Elkana  has been involved in the implementation of the project’s agriculture and rural tourism development components since 2014.
For promotion of the rural tourism development, the existed situation as well as the development potential of the rural tourism in Tsagveri district was studied by the experts of assoaciation Elkana. Based on the study findings the experts worked out respective recommendations and started implementation of specific actions addressing the local guesthouses’ infrastructure and service quality improvement.
With the aim of improving the local guesthouses’ infrastructure, four local guesthouses have been selected and their reconstruction works will be co-financed within the framework of the project. Consequently, the selected guesthouses will comply with the rural tourism standards developed by Elkana based on international experience, and information on the guesthouses will be published in the rural tourism catalogue of Elkana. Completion of the above mentioned reconstruction works is planned by summer 2015, particularly at the beginning of June.
At the first stage of the project “Promote Sustainable Livelihoods and Responsible Attitude to Environment“ 6 touristic routes were marked in Borjomi municipality (100 km in total) and the corresponding information leaflets on the marked routes were prepared in Georgian and English languages. Information leaflets on mineral water springs of Tsagveri were prepared as well.
The guests of Tsagveri district at the current tourist season will experience many pleasant surprises – interesting hiking trails, better equipped guesthouses and improved services.