My town of Kvareli has been in the Georgian spotlight recently, after discovering that the government's Department of Tourism and Resorts has chosen it as their next tourist location. They are planning a budget of 30 million dollars towards this project, that will go towards road reconstruction, new restaurants, hotels, shops, etc. The project has started now, with the construction of the new tourism office which is about a 1 minute walk from my house and all the brand spanking new signs all over town pointing tourists to different places of interest; and will be in the works till late 2013 (or so they believe...I'm not holding my breath.) Regardless, this an exciting time for my community and for my counterpart, Alex and I as the Department head has asked us to become directly involved. We are charged with the design and creation of Kvareli's branding, flag, and tagline...and hopefully plenty other things later as well. Very fun stuff.
In addition to this, one of the well known news stations, Rustavi 2, here in Georgia has chosen to showcase the winery I work for and interview Alex to ask about our new tourism company he and I started, Georgian Journeys. Unless you speak Georgian, which I'm sure plenty of you do ;) you won't understand what's going on, but there are some cool shots of the winery where I work everyday and some interviews with Alex (guy with silver hair) and also with Kindzmarauli's General Director, Nugzar, who they talk with at length at the end of the program. Skip ahead to minute 13:12 to see the news clip.
Kindzmarauli winery and Georgian Journeys interview
 |
| Teo, the marketing director of Kindzmarauli, and myself |
Also, to add to the tourismy awesomeness of Kvareli, the president of the winery Tamaz Konchoshvili and the president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili have invested their money and efforts into opening a brand new resort here in Kvareli, which just had it's Grand opening a couple of days ago. All the ministry heads, Saakashvili himself, posh-rich Georgian influentials, employees of the winery, and little ole Peace Corps volunteers such as Katelyn and I were invited. Let me tell you....holy...crap. This place is incredible, and seriously belongs in the upper echelons of society even in LA, New York, or Miami. There was non stop all you can eat food and drink (caviar, roasted quail, shrimp, prosciutto, wine, hennesy, whiskey etc etc etc), fireworks, live music from stars of Eurostar and Geostar...Um...wait, am I actually a Peace Corps volunteer? Haha, I'm definitely not gonna try and jinx it. Below is a link to Saakashvili giving a speech, on the roof of the hotel, about the opening of the resort and promotion of tourism on the behalf of Georgia and Kvareli.
The President and the Kvareli Lake Resort
This is gonna be a fun and interesting next year...can't wait.
 |
| Nugzar and his wife Teo |
 |
| The rooftop lounge of the Kvareli Lake Resort |
