The wellness industry has a long history in Georgia, even the legend of King of Kartli Vakhtang Gorgasali and Tbilisi is connected to Georgia’s natural spring water. The Arab geographer Ibn Haukal in the Book of Roads and Kingdoms mentions Tbilisi and notes: “In the city, there are baths similar to the baths of Tiberias, whose water boils without fire.”
Naturally, with time, ecotourism was merged with the Wellness Center industry and different regions started to offer their own distinctive services.
It’s interesting to look in a different direction in this field and find out what sort of innovations are around. To do that, we sat down with Keti Dzidziguri from the Rosalind Franklin Wellness Center.
This is what she had to say about the local wellness industry: “There are several good wellness centers in Georgia, but in the direction of personalized medicine, and with the modern practices and equipment that we use, we have no competitors. Wellness services are generally in demand in Georgia, but until now there was no place where it was possible to receive complex services, that include personalized approaches, in one space, meaning customers had to travel outside the country to get such services.”
When discussing the business potential of wellness centers, this is what she had to say: “This direction has excellent potential in Georgia. At the expense of better prices and the same professionalism or equipment, Georgia can become a hub in the region in the direction of wellness and personalized medicine, which will bring foreign currency into Georgia and lead to economic development.”
According to Keti, for the first time in the region, preventive medicine and, specifically, the implementation of products and procedures tailored to each individual, based on DNA-based research, is available. She also mentions that in recent years, there has been a tremendous demand for such a product in Georgia, and, most importantly, this demand is growing.
Keti discussed differences between similar, technologically advanced wellness centers in other countries and their Georgian peer. In her words: “The lower price is the only difference between our products and our international counterparts. As for the quality and experience, the customer in our center can get the same quality and results that they would get in different European countries and, more, at a reasonably low price.” She went on to mention what a big challenge it is to enter the market from the beginning with very high standards, which are set by international practice, and it is a huge responsibility as well as big challenge to compete with European and American analogues in the field, ones which have already existed for many years and which created quality standards that the customer is used to.
In conclusion, Keti talked about the overall potential Georgia has for wellness center business, and focused on the possibility of Georgia becoming a hub in the region in the direction of wellness and personalized medicine, which will bring foreign currency to Georgia and lead to economic development.
