ITB Berlin 2023 Host Country Georgia welcomes visitors for autumn wine harvest

Georgia, the official host country of ITB Berlin 2023, is gearing up to showcase its multi-facetted tourism offering at the on-site event next March.

The Georgian National Tourism Administration, together with several local tourism companies, had kicked off the “countdown” to ITB Berlin 2023 with the ITB TRVLX event in Tbilisi last May.

One of Georgia’s highlights is surely the country’s long history and thousands of years old wine culture: The wine harvest, locally called Rtveli, takes place between September and October every year, offering visitors a wine range of harvest activities from grape picking, crushing and fermenting, to wine tasting and local folk music and dancing.

Archaeological findings at Shulaveri Gora have shown wine making has been part of Georgia’s history for more than 8,000 years. Nowadays, around 50 000 hectares of the country’s soil is covered by vineyards that yield between 200 and 250,000 tons of grapes every year. To leverage the potential of its wine making tradition the Georgian National Tourism Administration has launched the Wine Route project, which mapped each and every wine cellar and winery in the country. The administration’s Wine Route guide gives visitors a 360 degree tour of Georgia’s wines, points out the best areas.

Photo: Nino Mazanishvili