Anna Kalyagina: it is needed to begin active promotion of the brand Abkhazia at the state level

The RA CCI held roundtable on "Information tourist resources as a tool for tourism development of RA".

Sukhum. February 27. Apsnypress. Dmitry Basariya. The round table held in the Chamber of Commerce of Abkhazia and organized by NP "Abkhazian Union of Tourism", the representatives of stakeholders and the media discussed the range of issues on the topic "Information tourist resources as a tool for tourism development of RA".

 Thus, the Head of the Tourist Board of the RA CCI Inara Daurova voiced fears of potential tourists who are going on vacation in Abkhazia: "During the RA Chamber of Commerce participation in various tourism fairs potential tourists from different countries ask us exciting questions. In particular, they are often interested in the problem of security in Abkhazia, since information resources give only negative information about our country. In addition, people are afraid that the Abkhaz visa in their passport can later cause problems. Also, in their opinion, the visa regime which introduced in Abkhazia for many countries discourages potential tourists".
 
 This view is supported by the president of NP "Abkhaz tourism alliance" Anna Kalyagina: "The information space is dominated by negative information about Abkhazia, which is provided by western organizations. This is compounded by the fact that there is no enough Abkhazian sites in English version on the internet. It is needed to start an active information policy, to promote the brand of Abkhazia at the state level."
 
 Director of the "Mountain Abkhazia" Foundation Tengiz Tarba emphasized that a systematic approach is needed in the information policy for the development of tourism, including media projects on the Internet and on television. "These projects will cover a larger audience and bring great benefit to the development of tourism", - he said.
 
 At the same time the head of the multimedia hub "Sputnik Abkhazia" Ruslan Bganba noted that "there is an active information warfare against Abkhazia, and it is time to give an answer".
 
At the end of the round table, it was decided to address to the Ministry of Resorts and Tourism of the Republic of Abkhazia with a proposal to assist in the development and promotion of tourism projects.