This study centres on the village community of Ushguli, located in the Upper Svaneti region in the north of Georgia. After attaining UNESCO World Heritage status in 1996, and benefiting since around 2010 from the establishment of secure state structures and systems, Ushguli has seen an incremental rise in tourism. Thus far, it has been relatively unprepared for meeting the interests and needs of visitors and coping with the diversity characterising modern lifestyles. The encounter and in many instances clash of interests between villagers and tourists is correspondingly difficult to channel and manage; visitor numbers are continuously growing, due at least in part to local residents’ efforts to advance their economic goals. Ushguli therefore represents a space offering ideal experimental conditions for the exploration of tourism as a strategy for overcoming economic and social crisis and of its effects on preexisting spatial, economic, environmental and social structures, against a backdrop of change to material and immaterial objects driven by various stakeholders. This article provides an overview of the specific focus of this study, commenced in 2017 and planned to cover a duration of several years, and of the research approach taken, as well as outlining central findings.

中文翻译：

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格鲁吉亚山区和遗产旅游的影响：以乌什古利为例

本研究以位于佐治亚州北部上斯瓦涅季地区的 Ushguli 村庄社区为中心。在 1996 年获得联合国教科文组织世界遗产地位后，自 2010 年左右开始受益于安全的国家结构和体系的建立，乌什古里的旅游业逐渐增长。迄今为止，它在满足游客的兴趣和需求以及应对现代生活方式的多样性方面还相对缺乏准备。村民和游客之间的遭遇和很多情况下的利益冲突也相应地难以引导和管理；游客人数不断增长，至少部分是由于当地居民努力实现其经济目标。因此，Ushguli 代表了一个空间，为探索旅游作为克服经济和社会危机及其对先前存在的空间、经济、环境和社会结构的影响的战略提供了理想的实验条件，背景是由物质和非物质对象驱动的变化。各种利益相关者。本文概述了这项于 2017 年开始并计划持续数年的研究的具体重点，以及所采取的研究方法，并概述了核心发现。