Tourism hopes

The Georgian leadership is putting great hope in developing tourism infrastructure in the country. It is suggested that in 2015 around half a million tourists will visit Svaneti alone and the country as a whole will host up to seven million tourists. Some analysts however challenge this optimism and emphasize the importance of the method of calculating the number of tourists. Until recently everybody crossing the border into Georgia was considered tourists. According to the government prognosis, in 2011 Georgia should have hosted around three million tourists. However, up to the present day, only about 1.8 million foreigners have entered Georgia and it is unlikely that that for the next four months a further 1.2 million people will visit Georgia as tourists. Skeptical analysts suggest that the state stop calculating tourists from the number of transit passengers or people coming for business visit or visitors to relatives or friends. Some analysts suggest that the state calculates the money received from tourists rather than the number of tourists.