Almost 25 percent more tourists visit Georgia this year

Georgia’s attractiveness as a tourist destination is increasing, suggest data from January and February of this year.

In the first two months of 2017 alone, 294,000 tourists* spent time in the country, making for a 24.3 percent increase year-over-year (y/y).

Overall, 755,080 international travellers (tourists, transit, other) visited Georgia in the first two months of 2017 – 10.5 percent more compared to the same period in 2016.

“Tourism is one of our country’s main priorities and a number of governmental agencies are involved in its development process”, said Georgia’s Deputy Economy Minister Ketevan Bochorishvili today, while summarising the January-February tourism statistics.

“Every single tourist who comes to our country makes a positive impact on the development of the private sector, employment and revenue growth. Our goal is for Georgia to become a four-season tourism destination. Taking into account the tourism data of January-February, we should consider that tourists are actively interested in Georgia’s winter resorts,” she added.

The highest number of visitors who came to Georgia in January-February 2017 were from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey, Russia and Ukraine.

A positive trend was also maintained by visitors from the European Union:
• Germany - 35 percent increase
• Poland - 30 percent increase
• Bulgaria - 29 percent increase
• France - 19 percent increase

Also, a higher number (26 percent increase) of tourists came to Georgia from the United Kingdom, mentioned Bochorishvili.

Exceptional growth in visitor numbers was recorded from the following countries:
• Iran – 438 percent increase
• Uzbekistan - 211 percent increase
• India - 129 percent increase
• Israel - 65 percent increase
• China - 38 percent increase
• Russia – 36 percent increase

The deputy minister also said that in February of 2017 alone Georgia hosted 368,010 international travellers (2.1 percent growth y/y) and 139,918 tourists (16.4 percent growth y/y).

“[The high number of tourists] is a result of a well-guided marketing campaign which our country has been actively implementing during the past several years. The government strives to raise awareness of Georgia abroad and make the country a popular tourism destination. As a result international tourism revenue reached $1.7 billion in the first three quarters (Q3) of 2016, which was $177 million or 11.7 percent more than in the same period of 2015,” said Bochorishvili. (Agenda.ge)