Welcome to Georgia! National Tourism Awards Team Supporting the Tourism Sector
INTERVIEW
The tourism sector is suffering, and will continue to suffer, due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. It is on the shoulders of government, business owners and the public to ensure that the economy is ready for the long haul on its way back to success. GEORGIA TODAY spoke to Maryna Chayka, Founder of the Welcome to Georgia! National Tourism Awards, on her team’s initiative to help the hospitality sector during this difficult period.
“The Welcome to Georgia! National Tourism Awards team’s goal was to help tourism and the hospitality industry by providing helpful information, and to motivate all to remain positive during these hard times. We had a brainstorming session with the marketing team and were thinking about a platform that could do the above, and we came up with the idea of a facebook group ‘Tourism while COVID-19’ (ტურიზმი COVID-19-ის პირობებში) Our project made quite a big contribution to the industry in good times, and we sure weren’t going to be quiet and do nothing during the hard times!” she tells us.
“The group was created on March 24, and since then we’ve been providing information about governmental, business and consulting company programs that support business, and offering news articles, online meetings and webinars about various issues connected to the industry. We carefully choose relevant content to share that can help industry players to recover and adapt to the new reality faster, which is why we believe the information shared in the group is valuable for every member.”
What has the response been from the business sector to this initiative? Are many business representatives actively involved?
Business representatives are actively involved in our initiative. They’ve already developed some SME business supporting programs, and we would be more than happy to build valuable connections between them.
Tell us more about the Facebook group. What do you post there and who is involved?
Content shared in the group is about governmental, business and consulting company programs for supporting businesses, plus questionnaires, news stories, meetings and webinars about various issues related to the sector. We’ve already conducted an online webinar with Aneta Korobkina about the Algorithm of how to deal with emotions in a crisis. Aneta Korobkina is a professional international trainer, coach, speaker and General Manager of KA World (Leadership, Effectiveness and Service). She has 12 years’ experience in the restaurant and hospitality sector in seven countries- the USA, Switzerland, India, Russia, Turkey, Greece and Macedonia, and for the past 5 years, she has been a consultant business trainer and speaker at conferences, forums, corporate events and seminars with up to 800 participants.
Concerning local professionals, we’re actively involved in the planning process and will share news soon through our social media platforms.
Doing research is crucial. What messages and requests have you received through your questionnaires? What does tourism need right now?
Based on our surveys and current statistics, the main problems for business is the financial impact and operational processes; they need help in the mentioned directions. But the research process is still active may change the overall picture. Of high concern is loan repayments, with companies wishing to resume paying loans in some months, after they recover from the crisis.
Based on the information gathered from those employed in the tourism sector, have you given out any recommendations to the government about how businesses can be supported at this time?
As mentioned above, the research process is still ongoing. After closing and analysing it, Welcome to Georgia! National Tourism Awards will offer the results to every interested field, who can make the necessary changes and be really productive in the SME segment.
Also, we plan to organize an online conference and put the most relevant and crucial topics for the tourism and hospitality industry to discussion, with a list of speakers from both the private sector and governmental side. We are sure that together with different initiatives, the market leaders will come up with an effective anti-crisis plan and we will all find ways to recover fast. The biggest focus in the current situation will be development and promotion of domestic tourism.
By TEAM GT