7.5 Million Tourists Visited Georgia in 2017

International tourism is a rapidly growing industry and plays a major role in development of Georgia’s economy.

In 2017, 7.5 million foreign tourists visited the country. The result shows an increase of 18.8% compared to the last year. About 3.4 million visits lasted longer than 24 hours (+ 27.9%).

According to the report of Georgia’s National Tourism Administration, the majority of foreign travelers were from Armenia (+14.8%), Azerbaijan (+11.2%), Russia (+34.1%), Turkey(-0.8%) and Iran (+118.3%). A significant increase was registered in the number of British travelers that was increased by +39.9%, Dutch tourists -by 31.1%, Spanish +29.9%, French +29.6% and German +25.7% travelers.

The Georgian National Tourism Administration intends to form and implementGeorgia’s state policy on tourism development to promote the sustainable tourism development, high export income growth and job creation by settingup tourism infrastructure. GNTA also intends to pay more attention to domestic tourism.

For years, Georgia has remained a favourite destination for tourists from Eastern and Central Europe as well.

“Traveling to post-soviet countries, especially Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia, has recently become popular. It feels like people are looking for more unique and authentic places,” says Lera, a student of economy from Russia.