January-November 2017: Georgia hosts over 3 million tourists

Almost seven million international travellers visited Georgia between January-November of which over three million were tourists, says the Georgian National Tourism Administration.

More specifically, Georgia hosted 6,954,932 international travellers (+18.4 percent) and 3,243,963 tourists* (+27.6 percent)

The countries from where the largest number of visitors came to Georgia in January-November of 2017 were:

• Azerbaijan – 10.9 percent increase
• Armenia – 14.9 percent increase
• Russia – 33.4 percent increase
• Turkey – 3.2 percent decrease
• Iran – 121.1 percent increase

From European union countries:

• United Kingdom - 39.7 percent increase
• Austria – 35.6 percent increase
• The Netherlands – 32.7 percent increase
• Spain – 30.5 percent increase
• France – 29.7 percent increase
• Germany – 27.4 percent increase

The countries with the most significant increase were:

• Jordan – 327.2 percent increase
• Saudi Arabia – 165.7 percent increase
• Kuwait – 152.4 percent increase
• Iran – 121.1 percent
• India – 66.6 percent increase
• Uzbekistan – 57.9 percent increase
• China – 53.2 percent increase

In November alone, Georgia was visited by 524,108 international travellers, which was a 14.1 percent increase compared to November of 2016.

As for the total income from international tourism in the first and second quarters of 2017, it amounted to $1.1 billion – 26 percent increase from the last year.

In the same period, tourism was 6.7 percent of Georgia’s gross domestic product (GDP), which is a 8.8 percent increase from last year.

In January-October of 2017, financial operations carried out with foreign cards by international visitors was 1,799,989 GEL – a 33.2 percent increase from the last year.

Ed. - *Tourists are considered individuals that spend more than 24 hours in the country.