By Elizabeth McBride, CNN
(CNN) — When travelers head to the Pankisi Valley, the warnings often begin before they arrive, usually from the mouth of a concerned taxi driver, unsure they should be driving tourists to this remote destination.
“‘Why are you going there? What are you doing? I don’t know, it’s not safe for you there,’” the drivers say, according to Khatuna Margoshvili, a guesthouse owner in the rugged, beautiful valley.
Pankisi in Georgia, the former Soviet country beyond the eastern fringes of Europe, has long carried a reputation shaped more by headlines than tourism. In the early 2000s, Chechens fleeing Moscow’s war on their homeland used the valley as a refuge. Russia alleged some were former militants.
After the September 11 attacks in 2001, the United States claimed al Qaeda operatives were present in Pankisi and speculated that Osama bin Laden was among them — allegations that were never proven. The stigma deepened in the 2010s, when ISIS recruited dozens of residents from the valley.
Today, it’s a different story, as visitors who do make the journey are discovering. A 2023 report by the US Agency for International Development described Pankisi as “peaceful,” and online searches for Pankisi Valley return listings for horse-riding tours, felt workshops and classes in making khinkali dumplings, rather than reports of Islamic extremism.
And while the US State Department still cautions American citizens against travel to the region, many are still making the trip.
“In the past two, three years, 80% of our guests have come from America,” Margoshvilli says.
Unusual traditions
Tourism in Pankisi is still relatively new, and remains limited compared with more established destinations in Georgia. But interest has grown as accommodations have sprung up and tour operators have begun to include the valley in their itineraries.
Karolina Zygmanowska, a guide with Weekend Travelers Georgia, began organizing tours to Pankisi two years ago.
“People asked for the tour, so we started to run it. The interest started after we heard that a number of guesthouses had opened there,” she says. “They have their own community, their own culture — their food is even a little bit different from other parts of Georgia.”
Most families living in the valley are Kists, descendants of Chechen and Ingush settlers who migrated to Georgia in the 19th century. They speak Chechen, alongside Georgian and sometimes Russian. They follow Sufi and Sunni Muslim traditions in a country that is predominantly Orthodox Christian.
Every Friday, women from across the valley gather at the Old Mosque in the village of Duisi to perform zikr, a rite rooted in Sufi mysticism. Participants move in a circle, chanting, singing and clapping as the pace gradually increases. Pankisi is the only place where women perform zikr, and visitors can ask to observe the ceremony.
Pankisi sits close to Tusheti, a mountainous region already popular with hikers, but tourism in the valley itself is only just taking shape. Over the past decade, community initiatives — many supported by foreign aid — have helped build a small tourism industry from scratch.
For some residents, the motivation to open up to tourists went beyond income. Margoshvilli is a member of the Pankisi Valley Tourism and Development Association (PVTDA), founded in 2018 by a group of women who hoped tourism could help change perceptions of the valley.
Their efforts have drawn international attention. In 2020, Lonely Planet included Pankisi in its guide to Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. That same year, Georgia’s tourism board began promoting the region on its website — just two years after a controversial counterterrorism raid in the valley.
Uncertain times
Locals say unemployment previously played a role in ISIS’ success