Number of Inter’ Visitors Up 14%, Number of Tourists Up 23% in January

The Georgian National Tourism Administration (GNTA) announced that 444,241 international travelers visited Georgia in January 2018, which, 57,171 more than in January last year and a growth of 14.8%.

The number of foreign visitors, meaning tourists that spent 24 hours or more in Georgia, is 189,476 for the month of January, 35,393 more than in January 2017, increased by 35,393 (+23%).

Azerbaijan tops the list as origin country of visitors to Georgia in January (+0.8%), followed by Turkey (+20.1%), Armenia (+20.9%), Russia (+14.6%) and Iran (+92.4%).

The GNTA says the positive tendency in the growing number of tourists from EU countries has been maintained, with tourists from the Czech Republic up 59%, Latvia (+46), the United Kingdom (+31%), the Netherlands (+28%), and Lithuania (+16%).

Considerable growth is seen in the number of visitors coming to Georgia from Kuwait (+131%), Saudi Arabia (+127%) and Iran (+92%), as well as from Israel (+77%) and India (+48%).

In 2018, Georgia, according to the GNTA, is expected to reach and exceed the record number of 8 million tourists, while income from international tourism is expected to reach $3 billion. The expectations have been made based on the January 2018 data.

In 2017, Georgia reached the record breaking number of 7 million tourists, with $2.7 billion received income from international tourism.

Nino Gugunishvili