TBILISI, November 26 – Georgia’s government is dismantling a key tourism body only three years after creating it, sparking sharp criticism within the sector.
The Resorts Development Agency, founded in 2022 to help modernize and promote Georgia’s mountain and wellness destinations, will be shut down and absorbed into the National Tourism Administration by the end of this year. Officials say the merger is intended to streamline operations. But industry groups say the agency never produced tangible results in the first place.
Lasha Berekashvili, director of the Young Guides Association, welcomed the abolition, calling the agency’s work “zero efficiency.” He said Georgia’s ski and spa destinations have long suffered from basic infrastructure and coordination problems that the agency failed to address despite its mandate.
According to Berekashvili, most Georgian resorts project an immediate impression of chaos for visitors, with problems ranging from poorly maintained facilities to unsafe or unmanaged pedestrian areas. He pointed to well-known resorts such as Bakuriani and Gudauri, where he said parking shortages, neglected public areas and disorganized traffic still dominate peak seasons. “Foot traffic, horses, donkeys, buses, carts and large cars all move along the same road,” he said. “This is development at the level of Bangladesh.”
Criticism of Georgia’s resort management stands in contrast with the international attention the sector has attracted over the past two years. In December 2024, the Resorts Development Agency hosted its second global conference on “the future of resort development,” bringing specialists from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Greece, Japan and other countries. The agency had said these meetings were meant to expose local stakeholders to modern standards and to help the country adopt sustainable tourism models.
Agency director Aleksandre Onoprishvili said at the time that such events were designed to serve as a “platform” for learning and cooperation and promised that the agency would continue hosting them to support long-term modernization and international competitiveness.
Parallel to these efforts, Georgia has also been working to position its mountain resorts on the global sports map. In October 2024, the state Mountain Trails Agency (MTA) announced that delegates from the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS), including competition director Klaus Waldner, had inspected Gudauri ahead of the 2024–2025 World Cup season. FIS teams reviewed racecourse layouts and assessed snowboard cross infrastructure in both Gudauri and Bakuriani.
Georgia has been hosting FIS events annually since the 2023 World Championships, and local officials have repeatedly highlighted FIS praise for the country’s infrastructure and organizational standards.
Despite this international presence, Berekashvili argues that everyday problems on the ground have gone unaddressed, BPN reports. He says the duplication of functions between the Resorts Development Agency and other tourism bodies caused confusion and slowed progress, leaving resort management stuck in what he described as a state of paralysis, where each institution expected the other to act. Merging the two bodies, he hopes, will lead to clearer responsibility.
