MESTIA AS SVANETIA'S MAIN TOURIST DESTINATION
Mestia hides a paradise for lovers of outdoor activities, offering unforgettable experiences of hiking, horseback riding, skiing or mountain climbing. For those wishing to explore the charms of the land more closely, local guides and equipment rentals are available to explore the stunning nature and admire the picturesque panoramas of the Caucasus. Those wishing to explore Svanetian culture can follow the educational path and visit the Museum of Svanetian History and Ethnography.
The region is blessed with popular trekking and climbing trails, which, although requiring infrastructure development, attract numerous enthusiasts. There are more than 40 marked hiking trails here, which tempt with a variety of landscapes.
Hospitable and full of local color, Mestia attracted as many as 136,223 visitors in 2022, presenting an even distribution between domestic and international tourists. It offers about 130-150 accommodations, mostly in small hotels and family homes, which provide an excellent base for exploring the charms of this unique area. Despite this, most of the accommodations need further improvement in the quality of service, especially in terms of management and guest service.
The lack of mountain huts and mountain ambulance services is a major gap in the infrastructure serving mountain tourism, which stands in the way of its further development. There is an urgent need for training of tourism professionals and incentives for locals to return to their home area after gaining work experience.
Our Goals
Developing tourist infrastructure on the trails in the region’s surroundings involves a range of activities. Beginning with the construction of tourist shelters, modeled after popular mountain accommodation bases known in Poland and Europe, to the installation of amenities serving tourist traffic – gates to the forest, shelters, benches, tables and even fire pits for campfires, and the provision of trash receptacles, animal pens, hors d’oeuvres, viewpoints and places with basic medical supplies on the trails.
Upgrading this tourist infrastructure will significantly improve the quality of tourism experienced. It will also foster the development of the professional competencies of tourism workers. The project will also modernize accommodation facilities to facilitate access for people with disabilities.
The construction of tourism infrastructure will not have a negative impact on the ecosystem, as the shelters will be located on existing, frequented trails. Of course, the construction process may involve some negative impact, but the infrastructure on the trail is intended to improve safety and reduce the negative impact of tourism on the region’s nature.
During the construction of the infrastructure, physical force and horses will be used mainly, due to the difficult terrain access for machinery. This approach will benefit the environment, and the buildings themselves will be designed to minimize negative impacts on the surrounding environment.
The region’s calling card is its mountainous landscapes, its UNESCO World Heritage Site, and its extraordinary wildlife. However, the area is devoid of an organized tourist infrastructure to ensure sustainable tourism development. Accommodation and catering facilities are provided only in low-lying areas, hiking trails are devoid of good signage. There is a lack of shelters that provide a place to rest or shelter during adverse weather conditions in the mountains, a lack of trash containers along the route, and a lack of infrastructure that is also adapted for the disabled like piers on rivers. Therefore, our goal is to create a fully developed tourist and tourism-related infrastructure on the Polish model, disseminated and established by PTTK, which will significantly affect the growth of tourism in the region, which translates into the use of accommodation and catering facilities run by the local community of the region.
Dissemination of the idea of mountain shelters, which are a permanent feature on European tourist routes, providing a minimum range of services for the service of tourist traffic, providing a place of rest, shelter from the impact of adverse weather conditions. The goal will be to build accommodation bases and provide catering services, access to emergency services (duty station) and an information point in the region, on the routes of tourist trails. Improved safety on the trails will also be ensured by placing pharmacy supply boxes on mountain routes frequently used by tourists.