Almost five million visitors have come to Georgia this year, and trends show visitor numbers are higher than ever before.
During the first 10 months of the year (January-October), Georgia welcomed almost 4.9 million visitors, revealed latest data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Specifically, 4,995,489 visitors had crossed the Georgian border between January 1 and October 30, which was 6.8 percent more than last year’s corresponding figures.
Last month alone, 504,450 visitors came to Georgia, which was a 7.3 percent increase compared to October 2014.
The type of visitors to Georgia last month were:
Last month most visitors came from Armenia (9.2 percent increase month-on-month) followed by Turkey (3.7 decrease), Azerbaijan (five percent increase) Russia (15.3 percent increase) and Ukraine (10 percent increase).
A positive trend was also retained regarding visitors from European Union (EU) countries, where in January-October the most visitors came from Lithuania (19 percent of all visitors), Italy (14 percent), Germany (11 percent) and Latvia (11 percent).
From central Asian countries, the majority of guests came from Kazakhstan (31 percent of all guests), while the leaders among Eastern European countries were Belarus (53 percent) and from the Near East, Israeli took pole position (34 percent).
Visitors from the Middle East grew exponentially month-on-month. Ministry figures revealed visitor numbers were up 762 percent from the United Arab Emirates and up 77 percent from Saudi Arabia. The number of visitors from the United States increased 10 percent.
Georgian authorities are expecting more visitors to come to Georgia in November and December to enjoy the beginning of the winter season.