Georgia named top destination by National Geographic Traveler

"I want to share some very good news with you,” announced Georgia’s Economy Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili to local media after today’s Governmental meeting.

The decision to include Georgia into the top tourism destinations has already been made by the National Geographic Traveler and in my opinion this will help Georgia to develop its tourism industry and to improve the country’s image among world travellers.”

National Geographic Traveler is a magazine that launched in 1984 by the National Geographic Society in the United States. It is one of the most popular travel media in the world and is published in 20 countries in ten languages.

"Blessed Beast" the picture from Georgia's mountain region Svaneti was named by the National Geographic the Photo of the Day on September 23,2014. Photograph by Aaron Huey, National Geographic.

Georgia had been in focus within the magazine many time, with photographers capturing incredible images of Georgia’s scenery and authors describing life in the quaint villages and bustling towns and cities. 

The very first images of Georgia at the archives of National Geographic dates back to the 1920'. Almost 30 images captured by some of National Geographic’s top photographers Vittorio Sella, Maynard Owen Williams and Frederick Simpich when they visited Georgia about a hundred years ago. 

The Georgian Military Road between Mleta and Passanauri. Photo by Maynard Owen Williams/ National Georgaphic, 1921.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and National Geographic Fellow Paul Salopek made an unexpected stop in Georgia while he retraces on foot the global migration of our ancestors in a 21,000-mile, seven-year odyssey that begins in Ethiopia and ends in Tierra del Fuego. This was how Georgia became part of his global project "Out of Eden Walk”.