practice, there occurs a niche for the marketing, promoting and safeguarding the goods, which carry the traditions of people and guarantee the intangible cultural heritage sustainability. One more mechanism of traditional crafts promotion and safeguarding is copyright protection that favours the communities holding those rights and creates the precondition for protecting their products.2 Thus, the report recognizes copyright protection and traditional product labelling and branding as mechanisms to promote and safeguard traditional cultural products. These legal tools are helpful to preserve the identity and heritage values of authentic, tradition-embedded offerings. Strategic Role in HCET Value Chain HCET is a combined product of tourism and culture, which needs strong support from the Georgian National Tourism Administration (GNTA), the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia (MEPA), etc. Traditional products need government support and regulations to keep the identity of the products and processing using the concept of traditional product labelling and branding.3 So, the report emphasizes the need for government support and regulation, via labeling and branding that maintain product identity. It positions IPR frameworks as critical in upholding authenticity and preventing loss of cultural value when integrating such products into experiential tourism. CREATIVE TOURISM AND IPR The Concept and Characteristics of Creative Tourism Creative tourism is a joint product of the cultural and tourism industry, which is created and presented on the tourism market by creative people. Creative tourism products may be produced both by a person of art and any resident of a city and a village, including a farmer whose activities contain elements of the cultural and tourism industry. Combination of these two sectors creates diverse 2 See Khartishvili, L., Promoting Cultural and Heritage-based Experiential Tourism in the Black Sea Basin, January 2021, p. 35, available at <https://proextour.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/NAR-Georgia-English. pdf>, accessed 20 August 2025. 3 See Ibid. According to one of the recent studies, traditional products are not visible in the regions, while the practices of geographical indications, product labeling, marketing, and quality assurance of traditional products have been introduced in Georgia since 2017: World Bank. 2024. Georgia Tourism Trends Analysis and Recommendations. © World Bank, p. 50, available at <http://hdl.handle.net/10986/41723>, accessed 20 August 2025. 295 INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND GASTRONOMIC TOURISM IN GEORGIA
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