For Travel Partners · DMC Georgia
The depth your clients remember — under your brand, or beside it.
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Who you’d be working with
A partner rooted in place.
Living Roots is a Georgian destination management company — and a collective: travel curators, ethnologists, winemakers, guides and researchers with genuine relationships in every region of Georgia.
It was co-founded by two of the country’s most recognised names in travel and wine — Ia Tabagari, a decade at the head of Georgia’s incoming tour-operators association, and John Wurdeman, the artist and winemaker behind Pheasant’s Tears. Since 2012 we have designed tailor-made journeys for individual travelers, groups, special-interest tours, study visits, media and FAM trips, incentives and events.
For your clients, our network means access and depth no standard supplier can offer. For the communities, it means income that reaches villages — not just the capital. We are deliberately not a volume operator.
2012
rooted since
90%
locally-owned suppliers
3
countries · one operator
24h
first reply, with a named contact
What we operate
Built for the trade
Tailor-made FIT journeys
Composed per traveller — backpacker to ultra-luxury concierge.
Small-group programs
Measured sizes, licensed guides, adventure-safety standards.
Special-interest tours
Wine, food, culture, trekking, textiles, ornithology — briefs welcome.
Study visits & research
Academic and professional programs with our scholars and ethnographers.
Media & FAM trips
Press itineraries and familiarisation trips, on agreed terms.
Incentives & events
MICE and celebrations — see We Create.
Film & production support
Scouting, fixing, permits, logistics — see We Create.
Multi-country itineraries
Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan — one brief, one operator.
[Set departures for the trade — to confirm whether offered, and dates]
How we partner
Invisible, or beside you
Your clients, your style — we fit around both.
Option one
White-label
We operate invisibly under your brand — your itineraries, our ground truth. Your clients never know we exist; your reputation gets the credit.
Option two
Co-branded
We stand beside you as the named Georgian expert — useful where our founders’ profiles and community credentials strengthen your offer.
One partner, three countries
Beyond Georgia, we design and operate multi-country itineraries across Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan — one brief, one operator, seamless borders.
Georgia · Armenia · Azerbaijan
The product, honestly
A working network, not a contact list
Long-term, personal relationships that run the full width of Georgian life — from shepherds and village grandmothers to winemakers, scholars, artists and former presidents. The hosts your clients meet are people we genuinely know — arranged directly, fairly and reliably.
Full-country coverage — Samegrelo · Svaneti · Racha · Kartli · Tbilisi · Javakheti · Marneuli · Pankisi · Tusheti · Kakheti · Vashlovani — and everywhere between
Meet the network in People & Places.
Signature programs
Three that show our hand
A signature is not a catalogue. These programs show how we compose — the community thread, the pacing, the access no standard supplier has — and each was drawn tailor-made for its travellers. What we design for your clients will be theirs alone. This is the hand that draws it.
8 days
Discover Georgia — A Community Journey
Tbilisi · Kakheti · Kazbegi · Ateni Valley
Felt-making with the Nukriani cooperative, a day with the Temi community, qvevri wine with a fourth-generation artisan. Every overnight, meal and visit: locally owned.
5 days
Svaneti & the West — Highlands with the People
Lechkhumi · Ushguli · Mestia · Martvili
Europe’s highest inhabited village, dinner in the home of a sacred church’s guardian, Svan songs by the fire. Guides whose families live these mountains.
4 days · slow travel
A Different Kakheti — People, Culture & Adventure
Sighnaghi · Vashlovani · Telavi
Garden-to-table cooking with foraged ingredients, a full day of gazelle conservation in Vashlovani — based at Lost Ridge, rural regeneration your clients sleep inside.
How it works
Four steps, no chasing
One point of contact from first brief to final transfer.
1
Brief us
Your clients, interests, dates, comfort level.
2
We design
Tailor-made proposal with the community thread built in — within 72 hours.
3
Refine together
Swap any day; transparent costs; clear response times.
4
We operate
Licensed guides, safety standards, on-the-ground support throughout.
24h
first reply, named contact
72h
tailor-made proposal
0
updates you have to chase
The practical answers
What you’d ask on the first call
- Net prices & terms — confidential trade net prices, you control your margin; clear payment terms agreed up front.
- One point of contact — first reply within 24 hours from your named contact, who stays with you brief to operation; proposals within 72; updates without chasing.
- Licensing & insurance — licensed & certified guides, adventure-safety standards, liability insurance; documentation available on request.
- On-tour support — our team on the ground throughout every program [24/7 emergency line — to confirm].
- Guide languages — [languages offered — to confirm].
- Group sizes — small-group specialists by conviction [min–max handled — to confirm].
- Sustainability documentation — GSTC-structured practice; [supplier documentation for your own sustainability reporting — to confirm].
- References — operators in the UK, US and Europe [named references — pending approvals].
“Living Roots is the partner every operator hopes to find on the ground: deeply connected, quietly reliable, and genuinely committed to the communities their journeys touch. Our travelers come home talking about the people they met.“
— MIR Corporation · USA
Why operators trust us
We help build the sector you’re buying into
Sector-building, not just selling
Through the USAID programme Empowering Women & Youth Through Adventure Tourism Professions, with the Adventure Tourism School, we co-created Georgia’s state-authorised guide certifications — and we run the Mta-Mta Guide Marathon. Ia has mentored women’s tourism businesses across the regions for years; Living Roots leads national sustainable product development.
A living laboratory you can audit
At Lost Ridge — our own inn, brewery and ranch in a once-abandoned village — we test what we preach: local employment led by women and youth, circular farm-to-table practice, rural regeneration partners can visit and verify.
Our philosophy
The method, not the marketing: responsible, community-centered tourism is not a product line we added — it is how we have worked from day one. 90% locally-owned suppliers, community partners in every region, practice structured on the four GSTC pillars.
Read our full responsible-tourism practice — A Journey with Purpose
Memberships, licensing & standing
ETOALong-standing member
GNTAMember · exhibits internationally
GITOAIa headed the board for ten years · serves today
Georgian Ecotourism AssociationMember
ElkanaBoard seat
Licensed & certified guides · Adventure-safety standards · Liability insurance — documentation available on request
We work with the trade on confidential net rates and clear payment terms.
Our invitation
See it for yourself.
Every claim on this page can be walked through, tasted and questioned on the ground. For prospective partners we arrange familiarisation trips on agreed terms — time with the communities, hosts and places your clients would meet, and nights at Lost Ridge, the village we helped bring back to life.
“Come and hold us to every word of it — I would be glad to welcome you myself.”
— Ia Tabagari · Co-founder & CEO
Meet us in person
Same halls, every year
We exhibit internationally — often alongside the Georgian National Tourism Administration — and we hold table time for new partners.
March · Berlin
ITB Berlin
Every year. [Hall / stand — to confirm each edition]
November · London
WTM London
Every year. [Stand — to confirm each edition]
Plus selected fairs and roadshows [which others this year — to confirm] — book a meeting slot.
Let’s build journeys with purpose — together.
Write with your clients, dates and interests — [Name, title — to confirm] replies within 24 hours.
Or start small: send us one client brief, and judge us on the reply.
Prefer the full picture first? Download our partner introduction (PDF) [developer: link hosted PDF]