Baku, Azerbaijan, May 14

Trend:

Foreigners entered Georgia more than 2.2 million times for the period of January-April 2019, according to the data recorded by the National Tourism Administration, Trend reports.

This is almost three percent more than in the same period last year. At the same time, the number of tourist visits to Georgia also increased; 1.9 million foreigners came to the country as tourists.

According to the agency, the first place in terms of the number of visits to Georgia is occupied by Azerbaijan, with almost 400,000 visits in four months. The second place is occupied by Russia.

Representatives of the Georgian diaspora began to come to their historic homeland a little less this year. For four months, they visited Georgia 153.6 thousand times, which is 1.2 percent less than in the same period of 2018.

According to the head of department Mariam Kvrivishvili, the strategy of the National Tourism Administration of Georgia is not only to increase the tourist flow, but also to attract more paying tourists.

"It is important that our population and we ourselves correctly understand the significance of tourism. Tourism is important, as it makes an appropriate contribution to the economy," Kvrivishvili said on Channel One.

The National Tourism Administration predicts that 11 million people from abroad will enter the country annually by 2025, which will favorably affect the amount of income from this area; according to forecasts, this indicator should be at least $6.7 billion. Georgia’s revenues from the tourism sector are increasing every year; for comparison, tourism has brought Georgia $ 3.2 billion last year.

According to preliminary data, income from tourism for the three months in this year amounted to $ 578 million (+5 percent increase), which is $ 28 million more compared to the same period last year.

In 2019, a number of projects will be realized to attract tourists, for which 51.9 million lari (about $ 19.5 million) are allocated from the state budget. .