The Development of Ski Tourism in The Republic of Georgia - Research Paper Example

 DEVELOPMENT OF SKI TOURISM AT GUDAURI IN THE REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA INTRODUCTION The agenda for economic growth and stable development of the Republic of Georgia for building a prosperous democratic state includes the promotion and development of tourism in the country. Tourism encompasses several categories: “students and youth, holiday and recreation, ecotourism, adventure tourism, active tourism, rural, agricultural and wine tourism, resort and climate tourism, etc.” (MFA, 2009: 11). Ski tourism is evolving as an increasingly popular attraction in Gudauri, in the Republic of Georgia. In the latter half of the twentieth century, the character of ski resorts rapidly evolved from local or regional facilities to urbanized destination resorts attracting people from beyond the region. This transformation has resulted in significant impacts on the conditions of the biophysical environment and the host communities (Del Matto: 3). Policy initiatives and plans to provide information to tourists interested in the opportunities, to facilitate their entrance, and to provide high quality ski tourism experiences, are being undertaken at Gudauri. Thesis Statement: The plan/ policy related to the development of ski tourism in Gudauri selected for critical evaluation, is the Georgian President’s plan for the development of tourism in the resort, announced in April, 2007: two additional ski lifts would be installed in Gudauri, and several snow plows would be sent to the area. Additionally, the overall infrastructure would be refurbished (Press Office, 22nd April, 2007). Recommendations for improvement of the plan will also be discussed. DISCUSSION Georgia is a rapidly developing country with a new visa policy and improving infrastructure. Concurrently, there is a new firm commitment to safety, a welcoming economy for investors’ financial investments, and a readiness to welcome travellers, explorers and tourists. Moreover, with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of 12 percent in 2007, and over 6 percent in 2008 and 2009, the demand for international tourism is expected to continue rapid and sustainable growth (Invest Today: 2). The laws of Georgia encourages interaction between public and private tourism sectors, although no policy in Georgia suggests, implies or demands that these inter-relationships exist. The integration is critical to promote tourism in any jurisdiction, because government and the private sector are combined together in tourism. A unified body comprised of executives from both the public and private sectors must be created, and given the authority for policy decision as well as fiscal authority to determine the best strategies to manage tourism development marketing, especially “in this important stage of tourism development in Georgia” (Tait & Miller, 2007: 3). The Georgian President’s plan (Press Office, 2007) to install two additional ski lifts, add several snow ploughs and refurbish the overal infrastructure to promote ski tourism in Gudauri, is a substantial plan of improvement. However these are not sufficient. Further plans are required to supplement those mentioned above, since important domains such as destination competitiveness and sustainability also need to be addressed , as part of an integrated approach to improvement of the tourism facility. Ski Tourism at Gudauri, in the Republic of Georgia The Government of Georgia invites international investors to participate in the development and operation of a rapidly growing ski resort Joint Stock Company (JSC) Gudauri located in the Kazbegi region of Georgia, 120 kilometres away from Tbilisi, at the height of about 7,200 feet or 2050 metres. This most famous skiing resort in Georgia is located in a scenic area high in Greater Caucasus. Gudauri’s southern facing ensures plenty of sunshine and this Caucasus Range offers optimal snow conditions from December through May. The mountains on the Caucasus are higher and more extensive than the Alps, with more stable and colder weather conditions. These features guarantee excellent skiing conditions. “Heliskiing is one of Gudauri’s most distinctive offerings and it provides skiers with access to some of the finest powder-snow in the Caucasus” (Invest Today, 2008: 2). Developing coordinated approaches towards tourism planning and policy formulation in areas such as sustainability, are identified in organisational terms. An example is in the creation of new organizations or the allocation of new responsibilities to existing ones. Through establishing collaborative processes, various stakeholders and interests are brought together (Hall a: 278). Political will to pursue sustainability is crucial, to pave the way for professionals and technical experts to do their parts in the implementation. Joint Stock Company (JSC) Gudauri is 84.7% state owned with four other minority share holders (Invest Today: 2). The capacity of tourism businesses to survive and grow is a measure of their resilience. Organisations survive due to various adaptations to their environment. A destination’s vulnerability to change decreases becauses different parts of the organisation are sensitive to particular disturbances in the system. For example, economic and social change with restructuring decreases the vulnerability of that destination to such disturbances. The key issue is not only the change, but the magnitude of change relative to a system’s capacity to adapt and develop without losing the ecosystem services enabling social, economic and political well-being (Hall b: 282). Ski tourism may have both positive and negative impacts on the host community where the facility is located. Some of the positive impacts for the host community are: increased employment opportunities, increases in government revenues, and visitor interest in local culture resulting in employment for craftsmen, artists and musicians (Del Matto: 3). When rapid development takes place in the tourist attraction, the host community faces problems such as inequity and declining essential facilities and services. When there is a convergence of traffic flows on the ski resort, increasing visitor volumes necessitate equipping the resort to meet greater service demands. These include “trail maintenance, artificial snow-making, base lodge facilities with food, beverage and after-ski services, ski rentals, ski schools, sports boutiques, and diverse accommodations: hotels, condominiums, chalets and smaller pensions” (Butler: 101). Changing leisure travel patterns have resulted in travellers being more mobile, hence exerting greater pressure on tourist destinations. This is partly due to the decline in long-stay holidays in single destinations, and increase in short breaks, day trips, special interest and activity holidays. The ratio of tourists may hence be very large, as compared to the host community. Many of the environmental problems are caused by visitors travelling by car, causing higher levels of pollution. To counteract this, some destinations incorporate visitor management techniques, which is a relatively new discipline, but is rapidly gaining in popularity especially in the United Kingdom. More than resolving vehicular or pedestrian congestion, this encompasses a whole range of measures aimed at managing both tourism and the environment in which it takes place, including the visitors, the place and the host community. Visitor managment techniques aim to integrate visitor activity within the long-term planning and day-to-day management of a destination (Davidson & Maitland, 1997). Figure 1. (Invest Today, 2008: 2) Figure 1. indicates the steady increase in both foreign and Georgian tourists every year, from the year 2004 to 2008. The tourist attraction can be further developed as there are unlimited natural resources available (Invest Today: 2). The boost in Georgia’s tourism industry has been the manifestation of the country’s democratic upheaval, the growth of international communication, a strong foreign policy and a new commitment to security and safety. The outcome is that international arrivals have doubled in less than two years, exceeding over a million visitors in 2007, and continuing to rise. Figure 2. displays the breakdown of Gudauri tourists by their country. Adequate infrastructure in the form of roads, highways, energy systems and water supply systems are now developing rapidly. These aid the rising tourism business (Invest Today: 2). Figure 2. (Invest Today, 2008: 2) A key aspect of tourist resorts such as those for skiing is that they present themselves as exclusive spaces where tourists can relax in safety, away from outside element. Maitland (p.1262) conducted a study exploring how strategic aims are derived, focusing on the balance between local and external influences, and how policies to implement the aims are developed. Locality factors, local regimes and policy communities are more important than national government policy in accounting for aims and policies. It suggests that tourism management issues are rarely completely resolved, and questions whether true tourism management is currently achievable. Recommendations for Improvement of Ski Tourism in Gudauri It is important that recommendations should focus on destination competitiveness and multidisciplinary approaches to sustainability. These include the development of infrastructure, improving the quality of services offered to visitors, and adequate advertising of extensive tourism opportunities. Moreover, finding appropriate solutions for the high levels of pollution that is generated from vehicles is another vital area. The Importance of Destination Competitiveness The predominant problems in Georgia today are its underdeveloped infrastructure, the low quality of services offered to visitors and the poor advertising of extensive tourism opportunities (Invest Today: 3). Destination competitiveness is an important part of tourism management, and forms a significant tool in the strategic positioning and marketing analysis of destinations. Destination competition usually exists between clusters of tourism businesses, and there are three strategies by which competitive advantage may be gained: low cost, differentiation and specialization. A cluster is a group of tourist attractions, infrastructure and services in a demarcated geographical area. To be competitive, the destination’s resources and opportunities in the environment should be suitable to each other (Weed: 503). Building competitive strategies around core competencies is considered to be essential. Sustainable destination competitiveness consists of: various determinants, resources and factors, among which is destination policy, planning and development. The relationship between the various factors in competitiveness and their mutual influence over each other are important considerations. The main stakeholders in ski destinations are the ski area operators, tourism associations or destination management organizations, accommodation owners, tour operators and commercial enterprises. Further, environmental groups or ski area consultants may also be influential in impacting decision making. An attractive, smoothly functioning, and highly competitive winter sports destination is created only through appropriate planning, policy and development. For this, a well-planned environment which facilitates and encourages the appropriate forms of tourism development. Through the envisioning process a master plan is created, involving stakeholders at the community level in the planning and decision making process, hiring local experts where feasible. Planning considerably improves the chances of the resort’s success though it cannot guarantee the same (Weed: 503-509). The predominant problems in Georgia today are its underdeveloped infrastructure, the low quality of services offered to visitors and the poor advertising of extensive tourism opportunities (Invest Today: 3). Using integrated strategies for sustainability involves various factors, and forms one of the most effective methods of development. Sustainability of Ski Resorts Sustainability is an important goal for ski resorts which have extensive biophysical impacts on mountain environments and host communities. Pursuing sustainability also results in an improved efficiency in resource use, which in turn results in substantial cost savings. Real or assumed environmental performance can provide a marketing advantage in some marketing sections. However, the current approach to sustainable ski resorts is narrow, because it promotes only compartmentalized addressing of sustainability challenges, in isolation of one another. In this industry, key issues centre around local or onsite resource efficiency related to areas such as water, energy, solid waste. There is a failure to acknowledge the broader socio-ecological impacts of ski-tourism such as community social impacts, and pollution caused by emissions related to transportation to ski areas. Hence, there is a requirement for an integrated systems approach to achieving sustainability, and the methods have to based on locally specific factors (Del Matto & Scott: 131-132). Application of a Systems Approach to Sustainability in Gudauri A systems perspective to viewing ski resorts provides an alternative approach to investigating the essential requirements and outcomes for sustainable ski resorts. This approach takes into consideration whole systems, human and ecological subsystems, their conditions, changes in their state, and the linkages and mutual dependencies that exist between the systems. It is also important to consider the fact that ski resort activities operate within; and larger societal and biophysical systems in which the ski resort is situated impact the resort’s activities (Del Matto & Scott: 132). A complex set of societal and biophysical systems include the built system consisting of buildings and physical infrastructure such as ski trails, roads, water supply and electricity. These are needed to accommodate and service various types of ski resort activities. The human activity system consists of the host community such as the government, households, non-governmental organisations, and other stakeholders; businesses such as suppliers, producers and intermediaries, employment, real estate, guests, and public services such as the police, fire protection, public transportation, housing and land use planning. The biophysical system consists of plants, animals and soils; and “the environment consists of the elements that provide life support for all living things: sun, energy, air, water and minerals” (Del Matto & Scott: 132). The terms tourism region and tourism destination are different, and there is a difference in scales denoted by the two concepts. A national tourism organisation may market and promote a whole country as a destination, while within a country a region may have a defined identity of a tourism destination. A tourist destination may include only a single attraction. Further, government policy at a variety of levels or regions have been used to direct tourism to less economically developed areas. International tourism development policy for regional development is demonstrated through the European Union. The most important financial interventions for tourism development used by the European Union are the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Funds. These financial instruments are used with the European Union’s Regional Development Policy to strengthen economic and social cohesion within the European Union, and to reduce the differences in the regions of the European Union (Davidson & Maitland, 1997). The main Structural Funds to benefit tourism include the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF). The ERDF helps disadvantaged regions develop their tourism potential through direct investments in the construction of projects, and indirect investments in the area of transportation and communication infrastructure. The EAGGF helps regions over-dependent on tourism and suffering from its negative impacts: to solve environmental problems, and to diversify the economy (Davidson & Maitland, 1997). Conceptualizing Sustainable Ski Tourism in Gudauri: Using Gibson’s Principles Based on the eight sustainability principles proposed by Gibson et al (2005), as quoted in Del Matto (2007: 78), a conceptualization of a sustainable ski resort is developed here. Applying Gibson’s principle of socio-ecological system integrity, it is acknowledged that there are limitations to quantitative growth, hence ski resorts should pursue opportunities that reduce human induced stresses on biophysical systems. It is important to contribute to rather than detract from the integrity of both the biophysical environment and the host community it is nested with, for the well-being of ecosystems, residents, visitors, and ski resort staff. Similarly, the principle of livelihood sufficiency and opportunity recognizes that ski resorts must separate improvements to the facility, from further growth and consumption; create preferences for more sustainable consumption through education and marketing, and improve quality of lives through investments that support the local economy and benefit the wider host community. Gibson’s principle of intragenerational equity calls upon ski resorts “to deliver valued employment, community security, and opportunities for tranquility and fitness in a manner that enables one and all to fulfill their potential” (Del Matto, 2007: 78). Ski resorts have a responsibility to ensure that employees are provided with affordable housing. For different economic classes of visitors, a wide range of accommodation should be offered. The principle of intergenerational equity states that ski resorts are morally obligated to make decisions while keeping in mind the needs of future stakeholders, ensuring outcomes most likely to preserve or increase the opportunities for future generations to live sustainably while concurrently protecting the economic viability of the ski resort over an indefinite period. The principle of resource maintenance and efficiency guides ski resorts to reduce the total consumption of materials, energy and water across their life cycle, ensure recycling of material flows where possible, and invests efficiency gains in spheres that lack natural and social capital. Gibson’s principle of socio-ecological civility and democratic governance directs ski resorts to apply sustainable ski resort principles through open discussions with host communities, teaches social and ecological awareness and shared responsibility amongst internal and external stakeholders, and uses more systematic and integrative decision-making practices (Del Matto: 78). The principle of precaution and adaptation prescribes that ski resorts respect changing climatic conditions, avoid risks of irreversible damage to the basic elements of sustainability, invest in research and monitoring of the ecological system for increased understanding, design the built environment for readiness to confront surprise or natural impacts, manage the resort adapting for greater sustainability, and establish long-term goals for sustainability. Flexible decision-making subject to changes based on feedback, and leading to implementation of corrective action in order to reach intended outcome. The eighth principle of immediate and long-term integration states that ski resort owners and operators must continue to conform with the sustainable ski resort principles as a whole, rather than by breaking them into different compartments. Thus, opportunities should be pursued that will contribute to all the principles by implementing decisions that strengthen the whole (Del Matto: 78). The limitations of Gibson’s principles are: they do not actually measure sustainability. The principles are wide-ranging in scope and lack detail on their requirement for specific case use. Operating on complex systems theory and on the principle of integration, there may be challenges in their practical application. Limited understanding of how these complex systems work, the resource constraints and limited institutional capacity hinder a complete interpretation of the principles. Similarly the principle of integration is desirable in theory, but in application it may be excessively complex and impractical, separating sustainability into simpler components (Gibson et al, 2005). A number of bodies within the European Union, as well as other organizations consider tourism as the industry that will generate a great deal of jobs in the next ten years. Those enterprises which are involved in the industry are seen as potential contributors to a number of the European Union’s key objectives: for example, those of sustainable development, social and economic cohesion, quality of life and European integration. Most European Union laws are leading to higher standards, as well as a better overall tourism object (Hall et al: 107). Building a good destination brand creates a vision that everyone in the destination can relate to. This encourages ski tourist resorts and other service providers to create their own training programmes for their people built around the vision. While destinations are selling dreams and promising pleasure there is a need for substantiators summarising the core spirit of the industry, such as “touch the spirit, feel the welcome”, which will help the visitors experience the vision, and keep the promise. A holistic approach to the destination brand which includes the business target audience as well as the more traditional leisure consumer is of advantage, and makes the promotional expenditure worthwhile. The exact messages for each target audience would be subtly different, but the overall positioning and brand values are constant, and all the messages are mutually compatible and supportive. The basis for any destination brand is a unique combination of fascination and trust. Fascination is from the excitement of the unique features of the destination and its culture, and trust being the confidence in the product and its delivery (Morgan et al: 65). Conclusion This paper has highlighted development of ski tourism at Gudauri in the Republic of Georgia. Gibson’s holistic, sustainable ski resort principles consist of interdependent requirements beyond the conventional categories of environmental, social and economic factors. The above integrated systems approach involving several criteria, may be more difficult for ski resorts to implement, and may result in being carried out only in the long term or not at all (Del Matto & Scott: 148). There have been less funds available for skiing and other resorts, because of the declining economic situation. This has adversely affected resort environments. The English tourism development council points out that it requires only one element of the entire ski industry to be below standard, to reduce the total appeal of the resort. Restructuring may be carried out in various ways: by promoting the inflow of investments, product reorganisation and product transformation (Shaw & Williams: 239). The Georgian President’s plan for the development of tourism in the resort, announced in April, 2007 was stated as: two additional ski lifts would be installed in Gudauri, and several snow plows would be sent to the area. Additionally, the overall infrastructure would be refurbished (Press Office, 22nd April, 2007). Though vital, this plan needs to be integrated with various other interventions discussed above, for sustainable progress. Thus, the sustainable ski resort model based on Gibson’s integrated principles takes all factors into account, to help determine how to improve the resort increasingly for continued sustainability. Future work should focus on simplification of the integrated principles model, to reduce the number of inter-dependent requirements for achieving optimal outcomes, while minimizing drawbacks and limitations. Works Cited Butler, Richard. The tourism area life cycle. Great Britain: Channel View Publications. (2006). Davidson, R. & Maitland, R. 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Tourism strategy in Cambridge, UK, 1978-2003. Tourism Management, 27 (2006): 1262-1273. MEDG (Ministry of Economic Development of Georgia). Invitation for expressions of interest in the acquisition of an 85% equity interest in JSC Gudauri. (2008). Retrieved on 12th April, 2009 from: http://www.privatization.ge/spp/spp_files/entity_pdfs/ent_20_en.pdf MFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Foreign policy strategy. Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (2009). Retrieved on 12th April, 2009 from: www.mfa.gov.ge Morgan, Nigel, Pritchard, Annette & Pride, Roger. Destination branding: creating the unique destination proposition. Massachusetts: Butterworth Heinmann. (2002). Press Office. President Saakashvili unveils plans for development of Gudauri ski resort. Press Office of the President of Georgia. Retrieved on 12th April, 2009 from: http://www.president.gov.ge/index.php?l=E&m=0&sm=1&st=320&id=2192 Shaw, Gareth & Williams, Allan M. Tourism and tourism spaces. London: Sage. (2004). Tait, Thomas G. & Miller, Robert J. Republic of Georgia tourism development site visit and seminars. Final Report (September 25th, 2007). Retrieved on 12th April, 2007 from: www.amcham.ge/res/various/Georgian_Tourism_Development-Report.doc XPRESSIONS OF INTEREST IN THE ACQ INVITATION FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST IN THE ACQUISITION OF AN 85% EQUITY INTEREST IN JSC GUDAURIUISITION OF AN 85% EQUITY INTEREST IN JSC GUDAURI INVITATION FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST IN THE ACQUISITION OF AN 85% EQUITY INTEREST IN JSC GUDAURI Read More