„People from other countries come to Georgia and conduct their excursions the way they want„- Guides Association calls for regulation of entry of foreign guides

The Georgian Association of Guides demands that the entry of foreign guides into the country be regulated. In an interview with Commersant, the Association president, Ketevan Meladze, said that foreign guides often spread distorted information about Georgia, which harms the country. Apart from that, with the arrival of foreign guides, locals lose their jobs and income. In Ketevan Meladze’s words, models proven in the countries where this issue is strictly regulated are being considered. The Association hopes that to resolve the problem, meetings with the government will be held this year, at which the selected model will be presented.

"Visitors from each country are accompanied by their own guide." This causes us difficulties. In fact, people from different countries come to Georgia and conduct their excursions the way they want. We will start a serious conversation with the government on the issue in the future.

Frankly speaking, our guides are practically left without work, but I hope we will solve this problem soon. A number of countries are already solving this problem. We’ll likely adopt one of the models from another country and offer it to the governemnt. There are some countries that we like and want to do exactly the same. In Russia, Turkey this issue is strictly regulated. A guide from another country is banned from conducting tours there, very large fines are imposed for this. Our country doesn’t have strict regulations, we were a liberal country. We want what will be good for us, Georgian guides, and for the country, because the distorted information and stories that guides tell tourists are very harmful to our country. We had communication in 2024. This year we has not had yet. "We’ll probably hold meeting to talk about it this year," Ketevan Meladze stresses in an interview with Commersant.

When asked how the current events in the country have affected their sector. Ketevan Meladze notes that the lack of tourists has hurt guides financially, as they are self-employed.

"Tour guides have the same problems as the country’s tourism sector. The number of tourist arrivals to the country has fallen that affected hotels and restaurants. Guides are in the same situation, although sometimes they have orders but only a small part of them. This does not apply to everyone. Their income definitely declined. "This is really not good, because the guide is self-employed and this is reflected in his budget," Ketevan Meladze points out.