Adventure Tourism School Opens in Gudauri
An Adventure Tourism School has opened in the Gudauri mountain resort. The official opening ceremony was attended by the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, Dimitry Kumsishvili.
The school was established by the Mountain Resorts Development Company of Georgia, the Georgian Mountain Guides Association, and the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia, and has been supported by the Millenium Challenge Fund, which provided over half a million Dollars financing for the project within its grant program framework.
Ketevan Natriashvili, first deputy to the Minister of Education and Science, and Alexandre Onoprishvili, Director of the Mountain Resorts Development Company and the Mountain Guiding Specialists, also attended the opening.
The Adventure Tourism School is set to prepare professionals in the adventure tourism sphere whilst training hiking, alpine, ski and mountain guides, winter sports and adventure tourism instructors. It is also expected to create a system which will enhance safety at Georgian resorts and improve professional education in adventure tourism, raising it to international standards.
“Opening the Adventure Tourism School is extremely important, as it will prepare and train students who will be practically guaranteed future employment. Our country vitally needs such professionals for its tourism development,” Kumsishvili said at the opening.
While in Gudauri, the Minister of Economy visited the ongoing infrastructural projects in the area.
“Infrastructure projects are very actively ongoing in Gudauri: several ski lifts will be built during 2018, in 2016-2017 a 36 kilometer water supply system was built, and the project is still ongoing. An artificial lake construction is also planned which will be used for the artificial snow system,” Kumsishvili noted. The artificial lake project cost over GEL 11 million, according to the Ministry of Economy.
In addition, Kumsishvili visited the 7 kilometer Kobi-Gudauri ski lift construction, and the projects realized by the real estate development company RED-CO.
Nino Gugunishvili