Deputy Economy Minister says Georgia hosted 1.3 mln int’l travellers in Q1

Georgian Deputy Economy Minister Mariam Kvrivishvili on Friday said the country had hosted 1.3 million international travellers in the first quarter of the year and received “record-high” revenues of over $800 million.

Kvrivishvili said the domestic tourism industry had been “fully restored” to pre-pandemic levels and exceeded them by 40 percent, and noted a “positive dynamic” was also observed in terms of flights through the country’s western Kutaisi International Airport.

She added the Tbilisi International Airport in the capital had served more than 337,000 passengers in a 21 percent increase compared to last year’s figures.

This year we were able to introduce a number of European airlines, including Austrian and Dutch, to the country's airline market. This dynamic has a positive impact on the increase in passenger flow”, she said.

She added the flights capacity had been increased by seven percent while up to 640 direct flights were being completed weekly, which she said was 15 percent more than last year's numbers.

The Deputy Minister also noted Georgia was scheduled to host the United Nations World Tourism Organisation’s World Tourism Day in September, with a number of international delegates and media visiting the country.

Each of us together, with the private sector, will have the opportunity to represent the tourism potential of our country. All this creates positive expectations that tourism results will be even more record-breaking, [that] we will host more international travellers, bring in new airlines and [that] there will be more direct flights to our strategically important target countries”, she added.

Kvrivishvili also said it was “important that domestic politicians are not influenced by narrow party interests, creating negative expectations and spreading misinformation”, claiming the circumstance “harms the country's economy and small and medium-sized entrepreneurs who are directly involved” in the tourism industry.

We are confident that our small and medium-sized entrepreneurs will host many tourists this year, create new jobs, and the tourism industry will make a significant contribution to strengthening the economy of our country”, she added.

The official also noted the Government would continue to implement “important projects with common efforts”, which would “ensure the country’s tourism industry reaches record figures this year”.