Revealing Georgia's Tourism Potential

Although Georgia has experienced dramatic increases in the number of visitors over the past decade Swedish travellers are absent in the arrival statistics. Visitors from Eastern Europeans account for the majority of the increase in arrivals. This thesis attempts to understand what is missing in order for Swedish tourists to discover Georgia as a destination. This is done by interviewing Swedish tour operators and surveying Swedish visitors to Georgia. The results are analyzed in the framework of Leiper’s theory of destination competitiveness. A SWOT analysis is also used to structure the analysis, and the thesis suggests some benchmark measures that could be used to implement a systematic effort to improve the destination. The thesis concludes that Georgia indeed has a strong attractiveness on Swedish tourists, but that the main problems are connected with low awareness and lack of convenient transportation options. It is argued that these problems can be solved through improved marketing and entrepreneurship. Furthermore, the thesis highlights the need for Georgian destination managers to make choices today in order to shape the image of the country in the future. Georgia has a challenge to strengthen the authenticity that many travellers associate with the country, but is in a position to modernize by preserving traditions. Finally, it is argued that the results from this study are generalizable to include preferences of travellers from Western Europe in general, and therefore the study points to some significant opportunities available to Georgia