Georgia’s domestic tourism generates 114.6 m GEL

Visiting friends or relatives is the number one reasons why Georgians travel around their homeland, and shopping appears to be a popular pastime of local travellers.

Young people are now spending more time travelling than before, visiting mostly their friends or relatives and spending more money than previous quarter, especially on shopping, claims a new report from the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat).

In the first three months (Q1) of 2015, 974,800 Georgians aged 15 and older travelled inside the country. Of this 525,500 travellers (53.9 percent) visited friends or relatives.

In age groups, most people who enjoyed domestic travel in Q1 2015 were middle-aged. Specifically, 212,200 people aged 15-30 travelled in Georgian in the first part of this year, 304,400 people aged 31-50 enjoyed domestic travel, 223,200 people aged 51-70 spent time elsewhere in Georgia and only 58,700 people aged 71 and older went on a local holiday.

In terms of gender, more women (419,300) travelled around Georgian in Q1 2015 than men (379,300). Of this, women were more likely to embark on trips involving nature, adventure, pilgrim or health care, said Geostat.

The monthly average number of nights people aged 15 and older spent on the territory of Georgia was 1.68.

Georgia’s capital Tbilisi was the most popular place to visit among local travellers. The city enjoyed 264,300 visitors in Q1 2015, said Geostat. The second most attractive destination was the Imereti region, in which 203,200 people visited.

Other visited regions (in terms of popularity) in Q1 2015 were:

• Adjara – 87,500 visitors;
• Kakheti – 85,400 visitors;
• Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti - 72,800 visitors;
• Kvemo Kartli - 66,900 visitors;
• Shida Kartli - 64,500 visitors;
• Samtskhe-Javakheti - 64,200 visitors;
• Mtskheta-Mtianeti 41,200 visitors;
• Guria - 17,700 visitors; and
• Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti - 7,900 visitors.

Geostat noted it was possible that guests visited more than one region during Q1 and it was also possible that during one visit guests visited more than one region.

After visiting friends or relatives the other main purposes of domestic trips were holiday, leisure, recreation (31,800 people); education or trainings (10,800 people); health and medical care (111,600 people); religion/pilgrimage (15,300 people); shopping (117,300 people); buying goods with the aim of resale (6,000 people); visiting another property [cottage, house etc.] (71,200 people); business or professional (72,900 people) and other (12,400 people).

The level of happiness a person gained while travelling around Georgia varied; 340,200 visitors said they were "very satisfied”, 495,500 were "satisfied”, 13,100 were "dissatisfied” and 2,200 travellers were "very dissatisfied”. About 11 percent of people (108,800 visitors) were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with travelling on the territory of Georgia and 14,900 visitors did not answer the question, said Geostat.

The amount of money spent by Georgian travellers in the first three months of this year reached 114.6 million GEL. Most money was spent on shopping (32.3 million GEL), which was 33.1 percent of total expenditures, said Geostat.

Additionally, about 27 million GEL was spent on food and drinks, 21.7 million GEL on transport, 3 million GEL on holiday, leisure, recreation, cultural and sporting activities, 2.6 million GEL on accommodation, and other costs amounted to 27 million GEL.