Ancient city Mtskheta enjoys facilities for accessible tourism

Georgia’s ancient capital Mtskheta, a high-profile tourist area in the country, is the first of several Georgian cities to enjoy the areas accessible for tourists of all abilities.

The Georgian National Tourism Administration (GNTA) of Georgia’s Ministry of Economy has just completed the Mtskheta Adaptation project.

Within the project, all historical monuments such as Samtavro Monastery, Shiomghvime Monastery, Antioch Church and Svetistkhoveli Cathedral now became accessible for locals and tourists with disabilities.

Creating the environment adapted for people with special needs at the tourist attractions is very important. For this reason we made Mtskheta more accessible for these people and developed accessible tourism there,” said head of the GNTA Giorgi Chogovadze.

In particular, there were installed temple models at the entrance of all the churches in Mtskheta for people who are blind or have vision impairments, where they could also find special tourist information boards written in Braille to learn information about each monuments.

In addition ramps were also installed to all the historic monuments in Mtskheta to make the areas accessible for people with special needs.

Developing accessible tourism in the country will continue and Georgia’s famous western resort Tskaltubo will be the next stop.

From this summer we will start adapting Tskaltubo for people with disabilities. At the same time we are working to create accessible tourism packages for several towns in Georgia’s Kakheti region,” said Chogovadze.

Meanwhile, 315 municipal buildings and infrastructural facilities in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi will also undergo a renovation works to cater for people with disabilities.

This was included in the Three Year Action Plan which was created last year in order to develop accessible tourism in Georgia. (agenda.ge)