Tourist visits to Georgia recover by 67% from pre-pandemic 2019

International tourist visits to Georgia between January and September of this year have marked a 67.8 percent recovery from the pre-pandemic 2019 statistics, deputy economy Minister Mariam Kvrivishvili said on Tuesday while presenting a report of the domestic tourism and aviation industries.

Kvrivishvili said the number of international tourist visits had reached 2,704,133 in the reporting period, with the number included in the 3,892,605 international travellers with all purposes. The latter figure has marked a 53.8 percent recovery from the pre-pandemic figure. 

An impressive growth was also observed in the recovery of revenues from international tourism. A 94.6 percent recovery was recorded between January-August 2022 from the same period of 2019, and the revenue reached $2.1 billion. In August alone, the dynamics of recovery amounted to 126.7 percent", Kvrivishvili said.

Mariam Kvrivishvili at the presentation. Photo: Ministry of Economy

She also stated that compared to 2019, a 100 percent increase had been observed in the airline sector in terms of resumption of flights as well as flight frequencies. 

Today, 43 airline companies operate flights to 86 destinations on the Georgian airline market", Kvrivishvili said. The deputy minister also shared a forecast for 2025, saying the number of visits by international visitors was expected to reach 10 million, with the revenue exceeding $5 billion.

Economy minister Levan Davitashvili said tourism, related industries and the airline sector had been “most affected" by the Covid-19 pandemic, but added "we were able to create a positive dynamic in terms of tourism recovery during the post-pandemic period".