More than 500,000 people visited Georgia in September

Georgia’s reputation as a desirable holiday destination is growing, and the latest figures prove it.

Today the Ministry of Internal Affairs released statistical data showing 568,663 visitors came to Georgia in September 2015. That was 12 percent more compared to August 2015.

The type of visitors to Georgia last month were:

• 227,130 tourists (40 percent of the total number of monthly visitors) – a 16 percent increase year-on-year (y/y).
• 143,258 transit visitors (25.2 percent of the total number of monthly visitors) – a 10 percent increase y/y.
• 198,275 ‘other’ visitors (35 percent of the total number of monthly visitors) – a 11 percent increase y/y.

Last month the most visitors came from Turkey (nine percent increase) followed by Armenia (seven percent increased), Azerbaijan (six percent increase) Russia (12.6 percent increase then Ukraine (11.7 percent increase).

A positive trend was also retained regarding visitors from European Union (EU) countries, where in January-September the most visitors came from Lithuania (20 percent), Great Britain (17 percent), Italy (12 percent), Germany (12 percent) and Latvia (11 percent).

From central Asian countries, the majority of guests came from Kazakhstan (34 percent), while the leaders among Eastern European countries were Belarus (54 percent) and from Near East Israeli took the first position (38 percent).

Visitors from the Middle East grew exponentially month-on-month. Ministry figures revealed visitor numbers were up 814 percent from the United Arab Emirates and up 84 percent from Saudi Arabia. The number of visitors from the United States increased nine percent.

Meanwhile in January-September Georgia welcomed almost 4.5 million visitors.

Specifically, the Ministry said 4,491,039 visitors had crossed the Georgian border between January 1 and September 30, which was 6.7 percent more than last year’s corresponding figures.