The Girls behind the SpendYourSummerInGeorgia Campaign

In its recent issue, OK! Magazine Georgia presented five young girls whose bright idea has impacted Georgian tourism. Mariam Gujabidze, Mari Jobava, Nini Mchedlishvili, Nini Noghashvili and Keta Goletiani are the creators of the campaign #SpendYourSummerInGeorgia. By opening this growing Facebook group, now counting almost 300,000 members, they have popularized the beauty of Georgia and put the country on the bucket lists of a lot of travelers.

‘Spend Your Summer in Georgia’ is a campaign that is on everyone’s lips this summer. We’ll tell you how it all started.

“The first inspiration for this campaign was a Facebook post by Mari Jobava encouraging all her friends to spend their summer in Georgia,” says Mariam Gujabidze. “This idea inspired us, and we decided to create a group and invite all our friends to spread the message ‘Spend your summer in Georgia.’ The group became popular so fast: within hours we already had 10,000 members. We were impressed and excited to see so many people united around one goal. Posts were full of love and a desire to support each other; a lot of forigners were posting their experinces in Georgia and sending their best wishes, and while reading them, I recognized that it was the start of something big and amazing. I want to thank every single member of this group for their support and enthusiasm. Together, we can make big things happen,”

“The banning of flights from Russia to Georgia gave us the motivation to create the #spendyoursummeringeorgia campaign,” says Nini Noghashvili. “The aim of creating this group was to show off the touristic potential of Georgia and to develop an informational hub, where people would give and take recommendations related to exploring Georgia.

“Soon, the message was being heard and discussed not only in Georgia but around the world. Georgians were able to share the hidden gems of their country, while foreigners were sharing their emotions and experiences about Georgia. This campaign made us really happy and gave us growing responsibility in managing the group.”

Tell us more about the successes of the project

“I want to share a story with you which I heard from a French girl,” Gujabidze says. “She was advised to join ‘Spend Your Summer in Georgia’ by a guy she met while traveling to Georgia. After a couple of days, my friends and I met this girl in Tbilisi. She was excited to tell us how helpful this group had been for her. She recieved easily written out recommendations and advice, plus she recieved a free ticket for a concert she’d been dreaming of.

“There are a lot of stories like this. A lot of people visited or are planning to visit Georgia because of this campaign. There are Georgians who changed their plans and decided to spend summer here instead of going abroad. Georgian emigrants are giving out brochures and are raising awareness about the beauty of our country.

“It’s amazing how much support we’ve recieved from the private sector. They want to colaborate on a number of interesting projects with us. It proves that together we can reach a lot of goals.”

“The campaign #SpendYourSummerinGeorgia has put forward our roles as independent individuals in improving the tourism of the country,” says Nini Mchedlishvili. “In fact, members of our group have become informal ambassadors for Georgia.”

What directions should be priorities for improvement in Georgian tourism?

“In my opinion, above all it’s necessary to focus on improving quality and service,” Noghashvili answers. “Also, it’s crucial to become less dependent on Russian markets and concentrate more on other touristic potential and possibilities.”

“We need to improve the service and infrastructure, diversify markets, embrace our unique locations, and have an active informative campaign to attract foreign tourists and raise our fame as a country,” Keta Goletiani adds.

“First of all, we need to see improvement in quality in the fields of small and medium-sized businesses,” Mchedlishvili says. “Our branded hotels provide standardized services, which supports their success as functioning business. However, smaller businesses in the field have a lot of problems.”

Mariam Gujabidze is a lawyer working at the State Insurance Supervision Service Development while being a master’s student in Public Management, a joint program of Tbilisi State University and The German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer. “I always wanted to make a contribution to emerging tourism, to make Georgia an even more attractive place for tourists,” she says. “I believe that every one of us has the responsibility to serve as an ambassador by sharing the rich culture of Georgia with our foreign friends and colleagues.”

Keta Goletiani has studied Political Science and Public Management to different degrees in Georgia, Estonia and Ireland and is currently an assistant of the Parliamentary Program at NDI. “I have no professional connection to tourism, but I have always tried to contribute as much as I can to popularizing the country when studying and working abroad,” she says.

Nini Noghashvili has a bachelor’s degree in Architecture, having started first by studying at Tbilisi State Academy. “An interest in active social and civil life brought me to Public Management in a joint program of the Tbilisi State University and The German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer,” she tells us. “Right now, I work at Tbilisi City Hall’s Division of Municipality Inspections, Construction Control and Exploitation.”

Nini Mchedlishvili is a specialist in International Justice and a has a Master’s in Public Management. She tells us she has experience working with refugees but what she loves most is promoting her country to foreigners- playing host to foreign friends every year.

Mari Jobava is a graduate of Law from Tbilisi State University, and has a Master’s in Public Management. She works at the UN Women to End Violence toward Women and is actively collaborating with state and public sectors. “My experiences of coordination and working with different projects helped me put this campaign to good use,” she says.

How did you all cross paths and end up working together on this project?

“All five of us are doing the same Master’s and that’s how we met,” Goletiani tells us. “The campaign started so spontaneously that we had no prior vision or plans that we’d be starting a campaign and working together this way. But right now, looking back, we realize we got really lucky, starting to talk in a Facebook chat and ending up at the head of this amazing campaign.”

What have you got planned for your own vacations this year?

“Without a doubt, I’m planning to spend summer in Georgia,” Gujabidze says. “One of my favorite activities is visiting different parts of Georgia with a group of Georgian and foreign friends. I managed to visit the beautiful Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti for a few days this year. There’s definitely a lot to see in our country – all the regions have a diverse culture, nature, cuisine and people. So, we all have to wander around and discover Georgia.”

“I plan my vacations in Georgia every year,” Noghashvili states. “I’m a fan of active vacations so I like hiking. Our Master’s program involves a Summer School in Germany, so Nini and I have to go there for two weeks. We plan to keep spreading our campaign there!”

Keta Goletiani says she has already been to Kakheti this year and plans on spending her summer vacation in Gonio and Batumi. “Batumi is one of my favorite cities and I like to visit it every year, even for a few days,” she says. “After, I plan to go to Racha for the first time, a place I believe will be even better than I expect. A few of my foreign friends are planning to visit Georgia and I’ll take them to some of the unique places of our country, including Kakheti and Kazbegi.”

“I especially love Georgia in the summer as we have a choice: go to the mountains or the seaside,” Jobava notes. “I love the mountains – it has beautiful nature and different musical festivals are scheduled there every year.”

Do you plan on continuing to work in the field of tourism based on the success of your campaign?

“Of course, we have short- and long-term plans,” Noghashvili says. “For now, we aim to work in this direction. We won’t miss any chance to help popularize Georgia.”

Goletiani adds, “The campaign serves an important and crucial cause. What’s more, it turned out to be extremely successful – so this won’t be a onetime thing, it will definitely have a continuation.”

“For sure, none of us wants the energy that each person put into this campaign to be wasted,” Jobava adds. “We have plans for the future- interesting and contextual activities to make happen. We’ll continue to work in this direction simultaneously to following our own professional paths.”

To close, why do you think foreigners should visit Georgia?

Keta Goletiani: That is a frequently asked question and I have a very honest answer. There are better seaside and mountain resorts in the world than Georgia has to offer; the infrastructure is better and more developed in other countries, too. But what makes Georgia special is a unique mix of things: the people of Georgia above all makes the country worth visiting. In a matter of just a few hours, you can travel from seaside to mountains, and find the highest settlements in Europe. You can see the infrastructure where the Asian and European cultures meet in the capital city of Tbilisi. Not to mention the Georgian wine and cuisine. All these, and a lot more, make Georgia a destination for a wanderer’s map. To look at things more pragmatically, the diverse culture of Georgia has everything to offer a tourist no matter what he’s looking for in the place he visits: it’s really cheap, especially compared to other touristic locations around the world that carry the same qualities as Georgia. What’s more, you can never feel lonely in Georgia – locals take in every guest as their own, it’s a part of the hospitability that I talked about.”

Nini Noghashvili: “We have a country of great potential with a lot of distinctive, unique qualities. We have amazing nature – mountains, sea, and dry climate locations – everything to fulfill different expectations. We have great, immerse culture, history and cuisine. The hospitability of Georgians is something that all the tourists remember most from their experience.”

Nini Mchedlishvili: “We have authentic, rare, intact nature which astonishes people, that’s why the rising number of tourists is no surprise. What’s more, the percentage of expatriates, people who come to Georgia to work and live, is ever-growing. I think that the spiritual freedom and openness that is natural for Georgians must be well kept and shared with as many foreigners as possible.”

By Nini Dakhundaridze