Tourist arrivals in Georgia up 9% in Jan-Sept, number of Russian tourists down by 3%

TBILISI. Oct 9 (Interfax) - Some 1.11 million Russian tourists visited Georgia in January-September 2024, which is 3.3% less than in the same period last year, the Georgian Economy Ministry's National Tourism Administration said.

Russian tourist arrivals grew 2.1% to 583,500 in the third quarter of the year during the high tourist season.

In the first nine months of the year, Russian tourists ranked first, followed by Turkish tourists with 1.06 million arrivals (down 2%) and Armenian tourists with 732,200 arrivals (down 0.5%).

Overall, the number of foreign visitors in Georgia increased by 4.1% to 5.79 million in January-September 2024, including 3.99 million foreign tourists (up 9.2%).

As many as 2.77 million foreign travelers visited Georgia in the third quarter of the year, a 2.5% increase year-on-year. In particular, the number of tourist trips grew 8.3% to 1.87 million.

Georgia's largest investment bank Galt & Taggart estimates Georgia's tourism revenue at $3.6 billion in January-September 2024, which is an 11.3% growth. The investment bank forecasts $4.4 billion tourism revenue this year.

In 2023, Georgia was visited by 7.07 million foreign travelers, up 30.3% from 2022.

The Georgian authorities are expecting foreign tourist arrivals to reach 7.9 million this year, thus increasing tourism revenue to $4.5 billion, versus $4.3 billion last year.