Georgian Tourism Administration Head highlights country’s gastronomic campaign involving famous chef Jamie Oliver

Maia Omiadze, the Head of the Georgian National Tourism Administration, on Saturday highlighted a one-year gastronomic campaign, during which Jamie Oliver, a British culinary icon, has been promoting the country through his social media platforms.

In her interview with Imedi TV, Omiadze emphasised Oliver’s visits to Georgia’s different regions in April and his social media posts about the country’s local cuisine via video stories to his millions of followers and also through British public broadcaster BBC.

“This year we had great campaigns and we are still proceeding with them in Europe, Germany and Great Britain. We have campaigns in the [Persian] Gulf countries as well. We have had several campaigns throughout the year. I would mark out one [of them] that was a gastronomic campaign when the famous chef Jamie Oliver visited Georgia”, Omiadze pointed out.

She added  BBC was the partner of the campaign, within which the sides had shot 20 videos, which would be aired on the broadcaster.

The gastronomic videos prepared by the British chef within the campaign, which started in July and will end in May, have already had over 5 million views through Oliver's social channels, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, and are about to be watched by the BBC viewers, the global audience of which reaches 300 million.

Omiadze also announced that the GNTA would start “active campaigns” for China and India, adding that visitors from those two countries were considered “desirable tourists around the world and there is a kind of competition from different countries to attract them”.

The Tourism Administration has implemented several marketing campaigns during the year, including media tours for journalists from China and India and is planning to carry on “more active campaigns” next year.