Georgia welcomes 360,402 visitors in February 2016

More international visitors are coming to Georgia, and last month was no exception.

February 2016 saw a 23.9 percent increase year-on-year (y/y) in the number of international visitors spending time in Georgia.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs has released statistical data showing that 360,402 visitors came to Georgia in February 2016.

The type of visitors to Georgia last month were:

• 120, 215 tourists (33.4 percent of the total number of monthly visitors) – a 19 percent increase y/y.

• 58,456 transit visitors (16.2 percent of the total number of monthly visitors) – a 1.4 percent increase y/y.

• 181,731 ‘other’ visitors (50.4 percent of the total number of monthly visitors) – a 37.4 percent increase y/y.

In February the most visitors came from Azerbaijan (a 41.9 percent increase) followed by Turkey (a 12.2 percent increase), Armenia (a 7.5 percent increase), Russia (a 29.2 percent increase) and Ukraine (a 23.5 percent increase).

A positive trend was also retained regarding visitors from European Union (EU) countries, where in January and February the most visitors came from Italy (29 percent), France (29 percent), Great Britain(14 percent), Poland (11 percent) and Germany (seven percent).

From Eastern European countries the majority of guests to Georgia in the first two months of the year came from Belarus (26 percent) and Moldova (31 percent), while the leader among Asian countries was the United Arab Emirates (48 percent) and from Near East Israeli took the first position (24 percent).

Furthermore, the number of visitors from the United States increased by 13 percent.

In January and February Georgia welcomed 13.9 percent more visitors compared to the same months of 2015.

Specifically, the Ministry said 683,561 visitors had crossed the Georgian border between January 1 and February 29. (Agenda.ge)