Georgian tourism arrivals down 95 percent-tourism administration

According to Alexander Giorgadze, only 17 to 20 thousand tourists entered Georgia in April.

“The situation is very bad. Official numbers reflect not the number of tourists but the border crossing. We should only count on people who have entered the airspace because the land border is closed for tourist purposes. Out of 82,000 named by the Tourism Administration, only 17-20 thousand people are real tourists, which is very small.

If we compare last year, when we were completely locked up, and look at it positively, that now, there is little work to be done, we can say so, but in reality there is no talk of any revival. On the contrary, we have hindering factors. First, it is the curfew. As our research has shown, 95% of bookings are canceled for this reason alone. Tourism will not be restored under curfew conditions. As long as the curfew is in effect in any form, tourism will not be in Georgia. There will be little movement in this sector.

The second major obstacle is the restriction of weekends for food outlets and the third is the closure of the land border. It is absolutely incomprehensible if you can land with a pcr test, why you can not cross the air border, under exactly the same conditions. There is no logical explanation for this. In the first 4 months of 2021, 56,434 people crossed the border by air in Georgia, including a large number of our citizens. It shows the number of tourists the best, ”said Alexander Giorgadze.

For reference, according to the data published by the National Tourism Administration, compared to the same period last year, 140% more international visits were made to Georgia in April this year.

May 12, 2021

DATA SNAPSHOT