Click Here: Program

Several countries in the world have already created their pathways in this regard, giving examples and experiences of the interesting achievements to the other countries in the region of Eastern Europe & Western Asia willing to transform and renovate with developments in the tourism industry.

Public-private partnerships, destination management, urbanization, infrastructural growth, economic and social effects, environmental issues, human factors, product and marketing management and crisis management are those themes that have to be included in the regional transformation affairs caused by tourism industry`s development.

In this regard, one of the outstanding examples of the successful regional transformation in the post-Soviet countries was recorded in Georgia, especially in the Adjara region. As the capital of Adjara region-city Batumi`s transformation from a miserable backwater to modern resort was triggered at the beginning of the 21st century, which gave birth to the newly transformed and attractive tourism destination in the Black Sea region. It is worth mentioning that the international press named the transformation of the city as “Batumi Miracle”. This phenomenon was related to the 2004-2012 years as a period of a rapid annual growth in urbanization, in economics and especially in the tourism industry. Development in the tourism industry led to the growth of the national and international visitors, national and international transportation possibilities, accommodation units, number of bed places, international brand hotels, number of food and beverage units, types of tourism activities etc. This growth and the preference made on the development of the tourism industry continued in the following years and until now city Batumi and Adjara region in general is a successful example of the regional development based on tourism as a leader industry of the region's economic development.

Hence, city Batumi`s case is an interesting phenomenon to be researched by the scientific groups working on the regional transformation issues, as well as on the tourism development, reforms and renovations at regional, national and international levels, urbanization, marketing, product and destination management. What is more, knowing and investigating the past examples of the regional transformation based on the tourism development factors creates bridges to the envisionment of the future regional tourism industry transformations and developments.

Moreover, the conference would like to be a place to deeply discuss the urban development of the region. Contributions could deal with statistics, econometric evaluations of urban politics, urbanization, tourism and so on or itself in general.

The conference will help academicians, operators, public managers, etc. to develop their knowledge on transformation by tourism as well as on tourism. The conference is the place to share ideas and develop networks.

The programme of the conference comprises keynotes as well as presentations of submitted double- blind refereed research and practitioners’ papers. The organizers welcome contributions that cover – but are not limited to – the following topics:

1. Tourism as a vector of peace.

2. Tourism developments in Georgia (with a focus on the city of Batumi) and its effects:

    - Urbanization effects

    - Economic effects

    - Social effects 

    - Environmental effects

    - Human effects

3. Illustrations of tourism development in Georgian regions:

   - Batumi - Adjara Region

   - Signagi - Kakheti Region

   - Mestia - Svaneti Region

   - Kutaisi - Imereti Region

4. Protection of the world heritage sites in the regions.

5. Wine tradition in Georgia and its global influence.

6. Success story of the city Batumi, Georgia.

7. Developing marketing strategies for the tourism market:

   - Niche markets in tourism

   - Products for the tourism market (resorts, wine tourism, ski tourism, eco-tourism, rural tourism, MICE tourism, cultural and heritage tourism, culinary tourism, gambling tourism, etc.)

8. Destination management.

9. Governance of national and local tourism organizations.

10. Facilitating cooperation among all stakeholders, such as Public-Private Partnerships.

11. Setting up business clusters in tourism, particularly at the regional level (e.g., Georgian-Turkish cooperation etc.).

12. Crisis management aspects in the tourism industry, with special attention to the Georgian-Russian war crisis in 2008 and the subsequent tourism development in the post-war period.

13. Planning for the future of regional tourism.

Applications dealing with broad topics such as: Urbanization, Marketing, Product and Destination Management or Regional Tourism Transformation will be given special attention.

Please submit an abstract of up to 1,000 words. 

You can also submit and register by sending your request on both emails:

1. PhD Candidate Nino Jintcharadze Nino.Jintcharadze@etu.univ-paris1.fr 

2. Dr. Diko Kopaleishvili dkopaleishvili@cu.edu.ge

All submissions will be reviewed on the flow such that authors can benefit from the reviewer’s comments.

All submissions will be double-blind reviewed and shall include the following information:

-Name(s) and affiliations of author(s);

-Contact e-mail(s) and postal address(es);

-Title of research paper;

-Abstract (up to 1,000 words) and keywords;

-Select references

At least one of the authors of accepted papers is expected to register for the conference and present their paper. Selected submissions will be considered for publication by leading scientific journals. 

Abstract submissions: January 30th, 2024
Notification of acceptance and referees’ comments to be sent to the authors: on the flow, no later than February 15th, 2024
Submissions of full papers (up to ten/fifteen pages) for inclusion in the conference proceedings: April 15th, 2024
Registration as the guest participant of the conference: May 27th, 2024

 Maria Gravari-Barbas (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)

Jean Michel Chapuis (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)

Nino Jintcharadze (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)

Elene Babuashvili (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)

Diko Kopaleishvili (Caucasus University)

Ketevan Karbaia (Caucasus University)