The FINANCIAL — The Georgian Tourism Association (GTA) together with Elkana rural tourism project, the Municipality of Aspindza and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) announced the opening of registration for the first Vardzia Adventure Race.
The event will be held on 6-7 June, 2009, around the cave monastery of Vardzia in the Samtskhe Javakheti Region of Georgia.
The Georgian Tourism Association is an organisation of private tourism companies in Georgia. The association was founded in 2006. The Georgian Tourism Association works on Incoming, Domestic and Outgoing Tourism Issues and Capacity Building.
“GTA carries out projects to improve tourism development in Georgia in partnership with the Department of Tourism and Resorts, Agency of Protected Areas, international Organisations (USAID/SME project, GTZ Private Sector Development project, GTZ regional communal development project, IUCN), local partners (Elkana, Geoland) and its member companies,” officials of GTA note.
“Vardzia Adventure Race offers an excellent opportunity to actively discover the region and at the same time strengthen team-spirit within the company, organization or group of friends,” Nata Kvachantiradze, Director of the Board, Georgian Tourism Association (GTA), says.
The event will be the starting point of a regular offer of mountain bike and rafting tours in the area. There will be maximum 12 teams taking part in this race and in each team there will be 6 persons available (3 runners, 3 bikers, 6 rafters). The participation fee is GEL 50 per person (GEL 300 per team).
“As the maximum number of teams is limited (12 teams), it is advisable to be quick with the registration,” Steffen Schuelein, Consultant on Tourism Development for GTA notes.
“At the moment we have 12 registered teams, which is the maximum number if we add sponsors teams. So there are already 72-96 participants. So far there are several sponsors of the competition, but we are still searching for additional sponsors, for Winner prizes,” Steffen Schuelein says.
According to Nata Kvachantiradze, General sponsor of Vardzia Adventure Race is the Swiss Development Agency for Cooperation and development (SDC). Partners are the Elkana rural tourism project and the Municipality of Aspindza. An additional sponsor is Mitana, Media Partners are Radio Fortuna, Autoradio. General sponsor in print and the media is The FINANCIAL.
“It is hard to find additional sponsors who are willing to contribute money and without the support from SDC it would be impossible to organise the event at the moment. The reasons are not only the economic downturn, but also the uncertain political situation,” Steffen Schuelein notes.
According to Steffen Schuelein, the aim of holding this race is to popularize tourism activities in the Samtskhe Javakheti region and contribute to creating economic development opportunities for the local people through the development of long term tourism activities.
“Vardzia is a spectacular location for an event that is planned to be held every year,” Steffen Schuelein notes.
According to the officials of the GTA, there will be a prize for the winner team, but they have not yet fixed the amount, because it will depend on the sponsors, something between GEL 300 and 600 plus runner up prizes for 2nd and 3rd teams.
Steffen Schuelein says that there will be some safety measures in place during the race.
“Parcours is not really dangerous, there are no steep bike downhills or difficult rapids for the rafting involved. So the risks are very calculated. However, of course there will be a safety team and a medical team on site,” Shuelein notes.
GTA officials declare that they will continue being active in holding such kinds of activities in order to promote tourism in Georgia.
“We are planning to organise the event every year. Additionally there will be other events; one is planned in Kazbegi, another one in Racha. However we’ll decide about the timing and location after the Vardzia Race,” Shuelein notes.
Written By Tako Khelaia
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