The total number of arrivals by international non-resident travellers coming to Georgia in 2019 increased by 7.8 per cent compared to last year and reached 9.4 million, show data from the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat).
The number of visits by international visitors, defined as visits by people who are over the age of 15 and travel for less than one year, came out to 7.7 million, which is 7.3 per cent higher compared to 2018. 46.4 per cent of visits were done by the 31-50 age group.
In 2019, out of the visits of international visitors, 5.1 million visits were tourist-type (visit which includes an overnight stay in Georgia) which is 6.8 per cent more compared to last year.
However, the actual number of international visitors equalled to 6.1 million which is a 5.6 per cent increase compared to last year.
In the number of total visitors, 66 per cent were only tourists, while 27.5 per cent accounted for were one-day visitors who did not stay in Georgia for a night. The share of women in the number of total visitors equalled 39.2 per cent.
In 2019 the largest number of visitors (1.2 million) was from the Russian Federation, which equalled 20.1 per cent of the total number of visitors. However, the number of Russian visitors is 1.6 per cent more compared to last year. While the largest share of visitors amounted to Russia, largest share of visits (1.5 million) came on Azerbaijan, which is 7.2 per cent higher compared to last year.
In 2019 the average number of nights spent during visits to Georgia equalled 4.1 nights. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
The majority of visits were to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi (4.1 million) and the mountainous Adjara region (2.3 million).
Meanwhile, 73.8 per cent of inbound visits were repeat visits, said Geostat.
The majority of travellers, specifically 53.5 per cent of them were very satisfied with travelling in Georgia, says Geostat.
Visitors spent 8.5 billion GEL ($2.96bln/€2.72bln) in Georgia in 2019 which is 7.5 per cent increase compared to the previous year.
Most of the income (44.7 per cent) was made by travellers in the age group of 31-50.
The average expenditure on visits amounted to 1,074.2 GEL ($373.8/€343.5).