International Arrivals Up 8.5% to 4.8 mln in Jan-Sept

Visits to Georgia by foreign citizens increased 8.5% year-on-year to 4,879,031 in the first nine months of 2016, according to data released by the Interior Ministry on October 3.

The Interior Ministry compiles statistics based on border crossing data.

Travelers entering into Georgia and staying in the country for more than 24 hours are classified as “tourists”.

Of the total 4.87 million international arrivals registered in January-September 2016, 2,156,731 were identified as “tourists”, a 19.5% increase over the same period of last year.

The number of tourists reached 304,814 in September, which is a 34.2% increase compared to the same month of last year.

Azerbaijani citizens led the pack in the first nine months of 2016 with 1.17 million entries, followed by citizens of Armenia – slightly over 1 million; Turkey – 977,075; Russia – 831,952; Ukraine – 136,573.

The number of visits to Georgia by citizens of EU-member states stood at 209,476 in January-September, 2016.

The reintroduction of 45-day visa-free travel rules to Georgia for Iranian citizens in February led to an increase of arrivals from Iran to 120,182 in the first nine months of 2016. There were only 25,200 visits from Iran in 2015.

International arrivals to Georgia stood at 5,897,685 in 2015, a 6.9% increase compared to 2014. (Civil.ge)