Georgians spend $75m on domestic tourism in Q3 2016
Thursday, December 15
More domestic travellers are seeking out ways to explore the beauty of their home country, reveals the latest data from the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat).
About 1.23 million locals of age 15 and older ventured away from their homes and visited another region in Georgia in the third quarter (Q3) of 2016. Collectively these travellers spent almost 200 million GEL (about $75 million/70 million*) while traveling in Georgia.
People aged between 31 and 50 were the most avid domestic travellers (366,500 travellers), while the least people willing to travel were the elderly (60,500 travellers).
In terms of gender, more women (568,300) travelled around Georgia than men (416,300) in Q3 of 2016.
Where do domestic travellers go in Georgia?
Tbilisi was the most visited area, while the Imreti region in the countrys west was the second most popular place to visit.
Here are top five most visited areas:
1. Tbilisi - 261,500 domestic travellers
2. Imereti - 249,500 domestic travellers
3. Adjara - 161,900 domestic travellers
4. Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti 103,400 domestic travellers
5. Kakheti - 88,400 domestic travellers
Why do Georgians travel around their home country?
Most people travelled to another region in Georgia to visit friends or relatives, while the next most common reason was for holidays.
The top reasons for internal travel included:
Visiting friends/relatives - 600,100 travellers
Shopping - 144,500 travellers
Holiday, Leisure, Recreation - 228,100 travellers
Health and Medical Care - 109,100 travellers
Visiting another house (cottage, etc.) - 81,600 travellers
Business or Professional - 45,600 travellers
Religion/Pilgrimage - 15,300 travellers
Education or training - 4,400 travellers
Other - 9,500 travellers
How much do people spend while on holiday?
Georgians spent the largest proportion of money on foods and drinks, said Geostat.
On average, the total amount spent in Q3, 2016 per category was:
Foods and drinks 76.9m GEL
Shopping 46.4 million GEL
Transport 29.4m GEL
Accommodation 17.2 m GEL
Holiday, leisure, recreation, cultural and sporting activities 5.7m GEL
Other expenditure 23.3m GEL
Are locals happy to travel internally?
The monthly average number of visits made by visitors of age 15 and older by satisfaction level is as follows:
Very Dissatisfied - 5,000
Dissatisfied - 21,800
Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied - 178,900
Satisfied - 606,100
Very satisfied - 420,000
Furthermore, 6,400 travellers did not know or was hard to answer whether they were satisfied of dissatisfied with traveling in Georgia, said Geostat. (Agenda.ge)