Jan-June 2018: Georgia hosts 30% more tourists

Georgia hosted 3,561,961 international travellers in January-June 2018 of which 1,933,774 were tourists, says the Georgian National Tourism Administration.

In the reporting period number of international visitors increased by 13.6 percent and the number of tourists increased by 22.9 percent.

The countries from where the largest number of visitors came to Georgia in January-May 2018 were:

• Russia – 27.9 percent increase
• Turkey – 20.4 percent increase
• Azerbaijan – 10.6 percent increase
• Armenia – 3.9 percent decrease

From European Union countries:

• Estonia – 108.6 percent increase
• United Kingdom - 51.5 percent increase
• Netherlands – 46.8 percent increase
• Latvia – 45 percent increase
• Germany – 44.4 percent increase
• France – 36.8 percent increase
• Poland – 30.9 percent increase

The countries with the most significant increase were:

• Korea – 168.6 percent increase
• Saudi Arabia – 120.6 percent increase
• Kuwait – 110.1 percent increase
• China – 85.9 percent increase

In May 2018 alone Georgia hosted 727,385 international travellers (13.8 percent increase), 606,792 international visitors (14.2 percent increase and 399,989 tourists (20.7 percent increase).

How did Georgia benefit from more visitors?

A total of $799 million was generated from international tourism in Georgia in January-April 2018, which was $177 million more compared to the same period of 2017.

In the first quarter of 2018 the share of tourism in the gross domestic product was 6.8 percent - a 16.6 percent year-on-year increase.

Last year international tourism revenue reached $2.75 billion, which was 585 million more compared to 2016.