April 2020: international travellers to Georgia down 94.5%

The visits of international travellers to Georgia decreased by 94.5 per cent in April 2020 and came out to 35,497, announces the Georgian National Tourism Administration (GNTA).

The largest number of visitors came from:

• Turkey (14,219 visitors)
• Armenia (8,018 visitors) 
• Russia (3,778 visitors)

Under the state of emergency declared because of the coronavirus pandemic, only Georgian citizens, truck drivers, diplomats, and humanitarian workers were able to cross the Georgian border. The data includes 12,192 Georgian citizens who have been evacuated from abroad amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Georgia will resume domestic tourism starting June 15 and will receive international tourists starting July 1. 

• Rebranding Georgia’s tourism image:Domestic tourism starting June 15, int’l tourism from July 1

Safe tourist corridors may be opened with Israel, the Czech Republic, the Baltic countries, Greece and other countries.

• Georgian ambassadors to reintroduce Georgia to the world as ‘safe tourism destination’

Meanwhile, other data from the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat) said that in the first quarter of 2020 the number of arrivals of international non-resident travellers to Georgia equalled 1.3 million, which is 17.6 per cent lower compared to the previous year.

Geostat said that the largest number of visitors (197,200 visitors) was from Azerbaijan, which amounts to 22.3 per cent of total number of visitors and is 7.3 per cent decrease compared to Q1 2019.

The purpose of the majority of visits (31.9%) was holiday, leisure and recreation. 

The majority of visits were made to the Georgian capital city of Tbilisi (965,3000 visits) and the Kvemo Kartli region of Georgia (371,700 visits).

Expenditures during visits made in Q1 of 2020 equalled 1 billion GEL, which is a 12.9 per cent decrease compared to the previous year. Average expenditure per visit increased 3.7 per cent compared to Q1 of 2019 year and amounted to 922.4 GEL.