2 Million Foreigners Visit Georgia in Q2 2018

In the second quarter of 2018, 2 million foreign citizens entered Georgia, out of whom, 1.1 million were tourists, which is a 20.4% increase compared to the same period of the last year.

The information was released by the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat) in its Inbound Tourism Statistics for Q2 2018.

Out of the total, 1.7 million were visits made by international visitors, which is a 13.8 % increase compared to the same quarter of 2017.

The majority of visitors were aged 31-50 (891,000 people), while the rest were the elderly (34,300 people).

The main reasons for visiting Georgia in Q 2 2018 are: Holiday, Leisure, Recreation – 738,400 travelers (44%), Visiting friends/relatives – 345,200 people (20.6%), transit to other country – 286,100 travelers (17%), business or professional visits– 122,500 people (7.3%), shopping - 105,400 visitors (6.3%), Health and medical care – 48,600 travelers (2.9%) and other reasons– 32,200 people (1.9%).

In terms of gender, more men (827,100) travelled in Georgia than women (518,400) in Q2 of 2018.

Most popular places visited by travelers in Georgia in Q2, 2018 are: Tbilisi – 35%, Adjara – 18%, Mtskheta-Mtianeti – 15%, Kvemo Kartli – 12% and Kakheti – 7%.

Geostat says that these 2 million foreign citizens spent GEL 1.9 Billion. This is a 31.5% increase compared to the same quarter of 2017.

As for the average expenditure per visit, it totaled 1,144 GEL (15.5% increase). The travelers spent most part of their money on accommodation - 424m GEL, followed by holiday, leisure, recreation, cultural and sporting activities – 354m GEL, food and drinks – 518m GEL, shopping – 297.8 million GEL, local transport – 129.7m GEL, consumer durable goods – 149.6m GEL, valuable goods – 6m GEL and other expenditures – 41.3m GEL.

By Thea Morrison