Event tourism was the fastest growing tourism trend before the pandemic. It will be then, today, and in the future not only a promising and dynamically developing segment of the global tourism market, but also an effective tool for promoting a country, territory, region, city or place.
The number of participants in event tours will exceed the number of participants in regular tours; people today want not only to come “to look at nature and drink a glass of wine,” but also to actively participate in events during a tour in another country.
Event tourism in Georgia is still poorly developed. The Georgian government represented by the GNTA (National Tourism Administration) and local authorities are not able to provide tourists with a wide range of events, festivals, concerts at the city level as WEEKLY events, while, for example, in Tuscany local carnivals in small towns are held almost every week and tourists actively attend these local city holidays, which leave an unforgettable impression of visiting the country.

Based on this, I would like to highlight important aspects of my work on the development of EVENT tourism over the past 7 years and say that:

• Nobody in Georgia is engaged in event tourism at the private business level, except for music festivals;
• My business projects (#Sounds of Georgia and #KefalFest) have a developed long-term strategy (up to 3-5 years);
• My festival KefalFest is today the only real platform for the development of tourism in the city of Poti and I work instead of the entire city tourism department and, unfortunately, without a permanent team;
• This festival has been working on its BRANDING from the first day and it will be a real Georgian brand among the existing festivals on the Black Sea coast of Georgia!

The Kefal Festival is also innovative in that it is not limited to 1-2 days a year. We hold a large number of small and medium-sized events throughout the year under the patronage of the festival.
And lastly, according to the results of voting within the framework of the tourism award Welcome To Georgia Award 2021, I became a FINALIST in the category Best Entrepreneur in the field of tourism, and in 2022 I became a WINNER in the category Best individual contribution in tourism industry of Georgia .
See you in August 2024 in Poti, at the Kefal Festival!

Nana Tabidze