20% more tourists visit Georgia this year, exceeding 4 million

Tourism is growing in Georgia, and the country is reaping the benefits of billions of dollars coming into the local economy from international tourism.

So far this year, almost five million foreign guests have enjoyed the sights and sounds Georgia has to offer.

Today head of Georgia’s National Tourism Administration (GNTA) Giorgi Chogovadze summed up activities of the tourism sector during the first nine months of 2016.

Between January and September 2016 the number of tourists who visited Georgia increased by 19.5 percent, while the number of international travellers had increased by 8.6 percent year-on-year (y/y).

In the first nine months of the year Georgia hosted 4,879,031 international visitors (tourists, transit, other). Of this number 2,156,731 were tourists, said Chogovadze.

Between January and September 2016 the most international visitors came from:
• Afghanistan – 563 percent increase y/y
• Australia – 217 percent increase
• Malaysia – 46 percent increase
• Brazil – 42 percent increase
• Jordan – 40 percent increase
• Egypt – 35 percent increase
• India – 34 percent increase
• Yemen – 33 percent increase
• Latvia – 26 percent increase
• Denmark – 23 percent increase

How did Georgia benefit from more visitors?

So far this year $867.9 billion was generated from international tourism in Georgia.

Chogovadze said this was 13.2 percent or $101 million more y/y.

“The value of foreign card transactions made by international visitors in the first eight months of 2016 reached 1.03 billion GEL, 13.6 percent more year-on-year,” he said.

Tourism in September 2016

In September 2016 alone, 631,302 international visitors arrived in Georgia. This was 11 percent more than September 2015, said Chogovadze.

Meanwhile 304,814 tourists spent more than 24 hours in Georgia and this was a 34.2 percent increase y/y.

Last month the most international visitors came from:
• Iran – 572 percent increase y/y
• Iran – 571.9 percent increase
• Egypt – 199 percent increase
• Syria – 160 percent increase
• India- 132 percent increase
• Saudi Arabia – 83 percent increase
• Russia – 31.3 percent increase
• Germany – 22 percent increase
• Latvia – 22 percent increase
• Turkey – 21.5 percent decrease

Last year 5.9 million visitors came to Georgia, said the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat). This was seven percent growth on 2014.
(Agenda.ge)