Geostat: 1.8 million visitors traveled to Georgia in the II quarter, a decrease of 37.2%
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Tuesday, September 15
The National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat) released the data according to which In the second quarter of 2020, 1.8 million local visitors made 2 million visits to the territory of Georgia. According to statistics, the number of visitors in the second quarter of this year decreased by 37.2% compared to the same period last year, while the number of visits decreased by 39.2%.
As for the data of the first half of 2020, according to Geostat, the number of visits in January-June decreased by 22.5% and amounted to 5.1 million.
According to the Geostat report, 925,200 small visits of 31.4% were made in the second quarter, and the number of overnight visits was 1.1 million (a decrease of 44.6%).
It should be noted that the main part of visitors - 39.1% belonged to the age group of 31 to 50 years. As for the gender picture, 50.5% of the visitors were women.
The survey shows that in the second quarter mostly residents of the capital traveled. According to statistics, 40.7% of visitors are residents of Tbilisi, 11.8% - Imereti, Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti region, 11.6% - Kvemo Kartli region, and residents of other regions, in total, 35.9%.
The Geostat report also discusses the goals of the visitors, their expenses and the regions they visit. Statistics show that the main purpose of visits in the second quarter of this year (47.9%) was to visit friends and relatives. The visitors mainly traveled to Tbilisi and Imereti region.
As for expenses, in the second quarter, local visitors spent GEL268 million on travel, which is 25.2% less than in the same period last year.
It should be noted that the average cost of the visit increased by 23.2% and amounted to 132 GEL.
Expenditures incurred by local visitors in the second quarter of 2020 were broken down by category as follows:
• Purchases - GEL91.6 million, a decrease of 24.8% over the same period last year;
• Food and beverage - GEL76 million, an increase of 10.1% over the same period last year;
• Transport - GEL52.9 million, a decrease of 26.8% compared to the same period last year;
• Accommodation - GEL6 million, a decrease of 8.5% over the same period last year;
• Entertainment - GEL0.4 million, a decrease of 89.8% over the same period last year;
Other expenses totaled GEL40.7 million, which is 51.3% less than in the second quarter of 2019.
It is noteworthy that in the second quarter of 2020, the main part of the expenditures made by local visitors came from shopping (34.2%), food (28.4%) and transport (19.8%). Expenditure on other categories totaled 17.6%.
As expected, the pandemic caused by Covid 19 also had a negative impact on local tourism. A state of emergency has been declared in Georgia since March 21st, and a curfew has been imposed at the beginning of the second quarter.
