ASPECTS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF ECOLOGICAL TOURISM IN THE PROTECTED AREAS OF GEORGIA

Maia Azmaiparashvili E-mail: [email protected] Doctor of Ecology, Associate Professor , Gori State University Gori, Georgia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7868-5463 Abstract: The most important natural factor in the development of tourism is the protected areas. Together with the natural wealth of the country, the protected areas preserve the memory of the historical and cultural heritage. Tourism should become a guarantee not only of economic strength, but also of environmental protection. The strength of properly managed tourism is to create a limit for the sustainable development of the environment. Ecological tourism appears as a tool for sustainable development of the natural environment. The principles of sustainability are interesting and valuable, challenging all sectors in the tourism value chain. To ensure sustainability, priority is given to the development of tourism products based on the natural environment, sustainable use of natural and ethno-cultural resources, raising environmental awareness and effective management. It is believed that sustainable development should be economically beneficial, socially just and environmentally friendly. The paper discusses the sustainable importance of protected areas valuable for the tourism sector, sustainable benefits of ecotourism destinations, sustainability problems, theoretical and practical aspects of sustainable planning of protected areas. We studied the issue of regional localization in achieving sustainable development, the degree of ecological integration, progressive trends, the role of the local population and government in the process of sustainable planning. It is important that the network of protected areas system should be expanded in parallel with the growing number of visitors. At the regional level, ecocivilization and long-term sustainability must be ensured only by an ecological understanding of the complex interaction between environmental, economic, political and social/cultural dimensions and by planning and management based on sustainable principles. In the work, we also defined the issue of the need to establish the threshold norm of "throughput" for the use of protected areas. The standards developed by the International Organization for Standardization were sought, which contribute to the fulfillment of the goals of sustainable development, from this point of view the standard ISO 18065 is interesting, which defines the avoidance of pollution, negative impact, ecological safety, etc. during increased travel in nature. Sh. Keywords: protected areas, sustainable tourism, visitor, national. JEL classification: Z32, Q01, Q56.