We ended our Svaneti tour with getting to know the Naveriani family. The story that our respondent told us relates to past Svanetian history and conveying this old history to the modern readers became possible with the help of the EU, Austria and Sweden.

Rusudan Naveriani discovered her grandfather’s manuscripts in her attic when she was 16, she soon realized that she was dealing with unique archive materials. The documents that were found in her family’s attic contained unknown Svanetian stories from the early 20th century.

These stories were collected by Rusudan’s grandfather, Silibistro Naveriani, who was one of the most important figures in Svaneti during that period and who became the victim of Soviet reprisals.

“There was a time we were not allowed even to talk about him. He was considered to be the “enemy of the people” and we were looked upon as children and grandchildren of a people’s enemy. Nowadays we can reveal these documents stored in the attic for years and already yellowed with age,” – Rusudan Naveriani tells us.

As our respondent told us, many different infrastructure projects implemented in Svaneti were associated with the victim of Soviet purges, Silibistro Naveriani, who was a pedagogue by profession, these projects played a decisive role in the Svaneti history. One of those projects is the road that we now use in order to travel to Svaneti, Silibistro Naveriani was the one who initiated the construction of that road.

According to Rusudan, Silibistro Naveriani created the first guidebook on Svaneti and he even called this region “a little Switzerland”.

“I found the first guidebook on Svaneti written by my grandfather. It was the first report card about Svaneti’s future that he delivered in Moscow. I believe my grandfather had a gift of prophecy, in that report card that he read in Moscow, he writes that Svaneti would turn into another Switzerland, only without lakes. It would be a tourism destination that would bring in a lot of foreign investment in our country,” – Rusudan Naveriani says.

As we found out, a new guidebook about the region is going to be published with the support from the EU, Austria and Sweden based on the materials from the early 20th century. This guidebook will convey heretofore unknown stories with photos to tourists and local vacationers.

“The idea is interesting contentwise and at the same time it will fulfil the function of disseminating Svaneti’s cultural legacy and attracting potential tourists. A tourist guidebook will be designed and published under this project,” – Program officer of Swedish embassy Tinatin Genebashvili says.

Besides publishing a guidebook based on the unique archive materials discovered by Rusudan Naveriani, project GRETA, funded by the EU, Austria and Sweden, also actively supports tourism development in Svaneti. These activities generally support development of tourism in the region.

“When I travel here, I notice similarities between Austria and Georgia. We have similar challenges and opportunities. One of the areas in which these two countries resemble each other is the mountain resorts; we are similar in terms of the potential for sustainable tourism and organic agriculture development. Tourism development requires major investments and relevant infrastructure in the region. We’re working in that direction, including with the help of the GRETA project,” – Austrian Ambassador to Georgia Mr. Thomas Muhlmann says.

Process of Svaneti’s branding is also underway with the support from the EU, Austria and Sweden, it is now in its final stage. According to the project representatives, visual and strategic branding of Svaneti should become a precondition for proper development and positioning of tourism in the region as well as increasing economic activities in the area.

“This process starts with research, collecting information through various means. It starts with gathering creative groups together, analysing all of this and then transforming it all into a creative format. We’ve already gone through all those stages. We’re now launching the marketing, communication strategy enforcement stage. International event called Highlander is part of this phase. This will be the first event where Svaneti brand will be officially represented as a new brand on a large scale,” – Manager of GRETA’s Marketing, Monitoring and Assessment Department Tata Sakvarelidze says.

The goal of GRETA project is to improve business environment in the country so that opportunities for generating additional incomes can increase in the following two sectors of the Georgian economy: Mountain tourism and organic agriculture.

This article has been produced by BMG, it represents its intellectual property and does not necessarily express the opinions of the EU, Austria and Sweden. 

Author: Anuka Jokhadze

Source (GEO): BM.ge