When tourists head to the Pankisi Valley, the warnings often begin before they arrive, usually from the mouths of taxi drivers who are unsure whether they can take tourists to this remote destination.
Khatuna Margoshvili, owner of a guesthouse in the rugged and picturesque valley, said drivers say, “‘Why are you going there? What are you doing? I don’t know, it’s not safe there.'”
Pankisi in Georgia, a former Soviet state on the eastern edge of Europe, has long had a reputation shaped more by headlines than by tourists. In the early 2000s, Chechens fleeing Moscow’s war against their homeland used the valley as a refuge. Russia claimed some were former militants.
After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the United States claimed that al-Qaeda operatives were in Pankisi and speculated that Osama bin Laden was among them, but this claim has not been proven. The stigma deepened in the 2010s when ISIS rounded up dozens of residents from the valley.
Today, as traveling visitors are discovering, the story is different. A 2023 report from the U.S. Agency for International Development described Pankisi as “peaceful,” and an online search for Pankisi Valley returns listings of horseback riding tours, felting workshops, and khinkali dumpling-making classes rather than reports of Islamic extremism.
And although the U.S. State Department still warns Americans against traveling to the region, many people are still doing so.
“In the past two or three years, 80 percent of our guests have come from the United States,” Margoshvili says.
Tourism in Pankisi is still relatively new and remains limited compared to more established destinations in Georgia. But interest is growing as accommodation options increase and travel companies incorporate the valley into their itineraries.
Weekend Travelers Georgia guide Karolina Zygmanovska started organizing tours to Pankisi two years ago.
“I started doing tours because people wanted to do them. When I heard some guesthouses were opening there, I started getting interested,” she says. “They have their own community, their own culture, and their food is a little different than other parts of Georgia.”
Most of the families living in the valley are Kists, descendants of Chechen and Ingush settlers who immigrated to Georgia in the 19th century. They speak Chechen alongside Georgian and sometimes Russian. They are an Orthodox Christian-majority country that follows Sufi and Sunni Islamic traditions.
Every Friday, women from across the valley gather at the Old Mosque in the village of Duisi to perform zikr, a ritual rooted in Sufi mysticism. Participants move in a circle, chanting, singing, and clapping, gradually increasing the pace. Pankisi is the only place where women perform zikr, and visitors can apply to watch the ceremony.
Pankisi is located near Tusheti, a mountainous region already popular with hikers, but tourism in the valley itself is just beginning to take shape. Over the past decade, community efforts (much of it supported by foreign aid) have helped build a small-scale tourism industry from scratch.
For some residents, the motivation to open up to tourists goes beyond income. Mr. Margoshvili is a member of the Pankisi Valley Tourism Development Association (PVTDA). The association was founded in 2018 by a group of women who hoped tourism would help change perceptions of the valley.
Their efforts have attracted international attention. In 2020, Lonely Planet included Pankisi in its guide to Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. That same year, the Georgia Tourism Authority began promoting the region on its website, just two years after the controversial anti-terror attack in the valley.
Local residents claim that unemployment has played a role in ISIS’ previous success in recruiting young people online, and the PVTDA describes tourism as the “only industry” currently available in the area. But the industry’s future is uncertain. Development projects have stalled due to the freeze on USAID funding and the subsequent introduction of the Foreign Agents Act, which restricts the Georgian government’s acceptance of foreign funds.
Margoshvili opened the guesthouse 10 years ago with help from USAID. “We were one of the first to open in the Valley,” she says. “There were very few tourists at the time, so we thought we could make some money.”
Other efforts followed. Young people associated with the Roddy Scott Foundation (an English school in the Valley and a former recipient of USAID and EU grants) are currently working as tour guides during the summer months. The Pankisi Women’s Council has also partnered with donors in Europe and the United States to support local entrepreneurship and vocational training.
“We have a variety of projects. We also have specialized projects such as sewing, woodworking, pottery, cooking, veterinary medicine, medicine, etc.,” says Griko Khangoshvili, a member of the Women’s Council. “We also held tourism courses so that locals could learn about tourism and how to open a guesthouse.”
But uncertainty weighs heavily. “We are still working without pay and waiting to see what happens,” she says.
Shenguli Tokhosashvili is one of the companies that benefited from early investments. With a USAID grant in 2017, the Pankisi native started Kisturi Draft, a small brewery that produces traditional Chechen non-alcoholic drinks made from rose hips and hawthorn. He quit his job as a lawyer in Tbilisi and returned home.
The product’s label depicts Tevrosmta, a mountain on the border of Georgia and Chechnya. “This beer is a tradition inherited from the Chechen people, our Chechen brothers and sisters,” Tokhosashvili says.
Today, Kisturi Draft is sold locally and in restaurants in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi and the Black Sea city of Batumi. Visitors can sample drinks on the brewery’s patio in Omalo Village, which is a regular stop for tour groups. However, Tokosashvili is cautious about expanding his business as foreign funding is frozen.
He says very few Georgians visit the valley. “My friends in Tbilisi asked me if I needed a passport or a special visa to visit Pankisi,” he says.
For foreign tourists, its reputation may come as a surprise. Joanna Horanin, who runs the travel blog The Blond Travels, visited Pankisi while traveling in Georgia.
“I really wanted to go somewhere that wasn’t as touristy and a little more remote, where I could experience rustic village life,” she said.
“We went horseback riding, we went to waterfalls, and when we got home we ate khinkali. These were different because usually they are served with meat or mushrooms, but in Pankisi they were served with nettles.”
“It was perfect. Probably one of the best experiences I had in Georgia.”
She laughed about Tani’s reputation.
“It’s obviously dangerous,” she says. “And I didn’t know anything about it.”
