Rich in cultural monuments, diverse nature, abundance of deciduous and coniferous forests, clean air, mineral and sulphurous waters and natural resources, Racha has great potential for tourism development. Laila, Bottomless Lake, Shaori Reservoir, Love Waterfall, Nikortsminda Monastery, Sairmi Pillars are just a small list of the places that await the vacationer in Racha.
Despite the great potential, as the founder of “Traffic Travel”, Tsotne Japaridze says, “Racha has not been developed in terms of tourism. We are trying to include Racha in the program, but we cannot agree with the guests.”
“Business Press News” was interested in why Racha, which is rich in terms of tourism, could not fully utilize its potential.
Hotel “Saba” mostly hosts local tourists. Its owner Nona Ishkhnelidze expects that the current year will be better because “they depend on it”. As for the low popularity of Racha, Ishkhnelidze explains it by the lack of advertising, and he sees promotion of Racha as one of the ways to solve the problem. Ishkhnelidze thinks that Racha has the opportunity to develop as a ski resort.
“We expect the summer to be busy – we’re counting on it.” The reason for the less popularity of Racha is advertising, not enough is being done in this regard. Roads are not built in inaccessible areas, otherwise they are normal. In my opinion, Racha can be more of a ski resort – if this is done, tourists will be more interested”, Nona Ishkhnelidze says.
Unlike “Saba”, “Racha Rum” is mostly visited by foreign tourists. The opening of the hotel coincided with the Shovi tragedy, and last year they did not have many guests. This year they expect that the hotel load will increase.
As Mariam Santheladze, the manager of “Racha Rumi”, tells us, the main highways in Racha are arranged, but the roads in the villages are still unorganized. The infrastructure of Racha is developing, but not enough.
“Infrastructure is slowly developing in Racha, I can’t say that we have the result we want. If I were to go from that point of view, as a hotel manager, there is a very big problem in Racha with catering facilities. I would like this side to develop. Electricity, natural gas and others are available in Racha, but in winter there are problems – electricity is often cut off. The main road is in order, but the villages have problems in this regard,” he said.
Santeladze also believes that Racha can be an attractive ski resort for local and foreign tourists. According to him, if Racha is developed in this respect, the season will be active even in winter.
“Racha has a great potential if we use the resources it has well.” This time, the summer season is more busy in Racha, but it is possible to build ski tracks, and if there is development in this regard, the winter will be busy as well”, said Mariam Santeladze.
Iva Tsagurishvili opened the hotel “Zeda Tlughi” in the summer of last year. The opening of his hotel also coincided with the tragedy of Shovi. The number of guests was also small. Tsagurishvili explains the reasons why Racha suffers from a lack of visitors. According to him, there is no tourist infrastructure in many places in Racha, in some cases it is problematic to get to the place, and maybe this is the reason for the above.
“My hotel, when there were tragedies in Shovi, we opened it, now we are starting – I had a few visitors in total. There was a demand in winter too, but this year I have gas, I didn’t have central heating and I kept myself because of the cold. In my opinion, there are very important places in Racha where it is problematic to get to, maybe this was one of the problems”, said Iva Tsagurishvili.
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