Duration: 01/07/2020 – 30/09/2021
Geographic area: Georgia (Adjara, Kvemo Kartli, Samtskhe-Javakheti and Kakheti regions), Armenia (Tavush, Lori and Shirak Marzes) and Azerbaijan
Implemented by: CENN (Georgia) and Green Lane (Armenia)
Donor: USAID Bureau for Europe and Eurasia, Economic Development, Governance and Enterprise Growth project
Tourism plays an important role in the economic development and social wellbeing of the Caucasus Region. The outbreak of COVID-19 has created a serious challenge for the tourism sector, resulting in a decline of international tourists and a number of domestic tourists, as well as putting direct tourism jobs at risk. This revealed an urgent need to strengthen the resilience of the sector by boosting innovation and supporting the digital transformation of tourism service providers.
To respond to these challenges, the objective of the Digital Caucasus project was to support the growth of SMEs involved in the sustainable tourism value chain by developing and promoting the Caucasus regional tourism brand and market, sophisticating businesses and expanding linkages in the region and beyond. The project targeted selected regions in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan and focused on SMEs that are local service providers of ecotourism, rural tourism and adventure tourism, business associations and rural households involved in eco and rural touristic services
The ultimate goal of this project was to ensure the economic growth of the Caucasus tourism sector by catalysing its digital transformation as well as building strong regional partnerships and new alliances between SMEs in the region. To this end, the project promoted the online presence of the Caucasus region by creating a Caucasus Tourist Destination Portal. The project supported up to 250 SMEs from Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan to improve their business operations and increase their sales.
Innovation,
technologies and
research
Over the span of one year and five months, the Digital Caucasus project promoted multi destination tourism in the Caucasus region via creating the GoCaucasusToday portal, supported beneficiary SMEs to improve digital literacy and facilitated regional partnerships and building new alliances between SMEs in the region. Skills acquired through technological tools have resulted in an improved tourism offer that is more attractive, efficient, inclusive, and economically, socially and environmentally sustainable.
The project supported more than 200 SMEs to strengthen their business operation and management practices via tailored trainings, match-making events and B2Bs, as well as by providing ICT applications. As a result, beneficiary companies improved skills and knowledge in digital marketing, e-commerce and online business management tools, which supported their digital transformation and increased competitiveness (Improved services and products, which had positive impact on sales; improved online presence (web-page, social networks) and management of booking platforms, which increased number of customers; updated business management approach, which has decreased workload).