Tourists in Georgia: official and reality

The Georgian leadership is making progress in the tourism industry in the country. However, many of the figures they name are exaggerated. Independent analysts challenge the unrealistic number of tourists in the country and argue that there are different ways of calculating the tourists applied by national touristic agency and the Ministry of Interior on one hand and real number of tourists on the other. Tourists are people who enter the country, use local transport, hotel and restaurant service. Some analysts say that out of the three million people registered in 2011 entering the country and labeled as tourists by officials, in reality tourists make up only about 10% of them. This incorrect calculation creates a false image, cheating representatives of small and medium size businesses in Georgia and potential investments.