If you sell tours, transfers or beds, you are supposed to be on a register — and certification is coming for the risky stuff

Under the Law on Tourism, people and companies carrying on tourism activity are required to appear in a register kept by the national tourism administration. It is drawn widely: guides, tour operators and agents, accommodation providers, instructors — in practice anyone selling excursions, transfers, tour organisation or beds. Registration has been compulsory since the beginning of 2025, so if you started a guesthouse or a small tour outfit last summer and nobody mentioned it to you, this is that thing.

Enforcement has moved more slowly than the duty itself. Georgia Today reported in January 2025 that the fine provision had been pushed back, with the government citing the need to talk the sector through it, and guides protesting the law for their own reasons. Whether inspectors are issuing penalties this month is not something a summary can tell you, and the amounts have been revised more than once — so ask the tourism administration directly rather than deciding it does not apply to you.

The 2026 change worth watching is the move to require specific certification for tourism services described as risk-bearing, with the detailed regulations still to come. Nobody has published the final list, but the category plainly points at the adventure end of the market: rafting, canyoning, paragliding, horse trekking, high-mountain guiding, ski instruction. If that is your product, the sensible assumption is that a certificate will be part of the cost of selling it, and that the operators who already carry insurance and documented training will find the transition cheap.

Because letting short-term with a service attached is tourism activity, not just renting. If your flat comes with airport pickup and a day out in Kakheti, you are closer to the register than you might think, and the same applies to the driver and the guide you use. The cheap version of compliance is to check your own status and to use suppliers who can show theirs; the expensive version is to find out during a dispute with a guest.