Domestic tourism becomes more popular in Georgia

Recent statistics provided by the Georgian National Statistics Office (Geostat) read that domestic tourism is becoming more popular in Georgia.

According to the data, in the second quarter of 2019, the monthly average number of Georgian resident visitors aged 15 years or more was 949.7 thousand, who made 1.1 million visits on the territory of Georgia.

Geostat says that in comparison to the II quarter of the previous year, the number of visitors has increased by 3.9 percent.

In the same period, the monthly average number of tourist visits of Georgian residents amounted to 449.3 thousand, which is 3.3 percent lower than the indicator of the relevant period of the previous year.

In addition to this, in Q2, 2019, 36.4 percent of visits were carried out by visitors of 31-50 age group. Visitors aged 51-70 come second with 32.7% and 15-30 amounted to 24.9%. 6% of the travelers were aged above 71.

57.4 percent of the domestic travelers were women and 42.6% were men. Also, 25.0 percent of visitors are the residents of Tbilisi, 18.9 percent - Imereti, Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti region, 13.1 percent – Adjara while the rest of the regions are represented by the lower share in the structure.

Furthermore, the majority of the visits come on Tbilisi with average 276.5 thousand visits per month and Imereti region with 215.7 thousand visits per month. Adjara comes third with 13% of visits, followed by Shida Kartli with 8% and Kakheti 7.5%. Also, 7.3% of visitors went to Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti and 6.4% to Mtskheta-Mtianeti.

In the same period, the monthly average expenditure during the visits equaled to 118.0 million GEL. This indicator is 9.7 percent lower than the indicator of the relevant period of the previous year. As for the average expenditure per visit, it has been decreased by 12.4 GEL and equaled to 106.1 GEL.

Moreover, 46.2% of visitors said they were satisfied with the trip while 33.3% believe the trip was very good. 10.5% were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied while 9.6% were dissatisfied.

In the second quarter of 2019, the main purpose of majority visits (50.3 percent) was visiting friends and relatives – 50.3%, followed by shopping – 12.4% and health – 10%. Around 8.8% of trips were made for holiday, leisure or recreation purposes while 5.9% of visits were business ones.