Tourism Administration Head: 2024 marked “historic peak” with 5.1mln visits, $4.4bln in revenue for country

Maia Omiadze, the Head of the Georgian National Tourism Administration, on Friday highlighted the past year had marked a “historic peak” for the domestic sector with a “record-breaking” 5.1 million tourist visits and $4.4 billion in revenue.

During a meeting with tourism companies, guides, associations, accommodation facilities, transport companies, and destination management organisations, Omiadze summarised the previous year’s results and outlined plans for the current year.

This meeting allowed us to share our achievements in terms of revenue and tourist numbers, while also providing insights into our future projects for 2025 [...] The following discussion took the form of a question-and-answer session, during which challenges were raised regarding expectations for an increase in tourists in 2025”, she said.

We presented our forecasts for the year, covering both projected revenues and the number of tourists. Based on this information, we provided insights to the tourism sector”, Omiadze added.

The discussion also focused on state initiatives for supporting the private sector, including projects such as Gemo Fest food festival, Mziskari, a project aimed at boosting domestic gastronomy tourism by offering “authentic dining experiences” to visitors, and Wine Road, a project promoting domestic wine tourism. Omiadze emphasised the importance of improving service quality through training programmes, revealing over 2,000 individuals across the country had been retrained in 2024.

In addition, the meeting spotlighted ongoing small tourism infrastructure projects, trail marking, and digital initiatives that aim to aid the private sector, including the launch of a registration portal for international exhibitions and an online database to promote Georgia’s travel offerings.

The meeting also addressed marketing strategies for 2025, delineating target markets and projects aimed at enhancing domestic tourism.