Georgian Economy Minister Levan Davitashvili on Wednesday told the Parliament that the revenues from tourism in Georgia were growing at a “record pace” and highlighted the dynamics of tourism recovery after the pandemic.

Davitashvili said the income from travel exceeded the 2019 figure by 7.6 percent in 2022 and amounted to $3.5 billion, adding in total 5.5 million international travellers had visited Georgia last year.

In the two quarters of 2023, the income received from travel amounted to $1.8 billion, which is a record figure and the growth is 24 percent compared to the same figure before the pandemic”, Davitashvili emphasised.

He told the lawmakers that in the first two quarters of this year, the country had hosted 2.9 million travellers, constituting a 74 percent recovery from 2019 period figures, and stressed it was expected that the country would receive $4.4 billion as income from international tourism.

This year's data create a reasonable expectation that Georgia will host 6.6 million international travellers by the end of the year, which is a 70.1 percent recovery of the 2019 data”, the Minister said.

Davitashvili highlighted the deepening of cooperation with China as “one of the important factors” in the diversification of the tourist market of Georgia and noted that China was the “largest tourist market in the world”, as more than 150 million tourists from China visited different countries every year and their expenses reached around $300 billion.

The visa-free regime with China is an additional incentive for Chinese tourism companies to consider Georgia as a tourist destination. In addition, we have actively worked with China on the issue of more direct flights", he added.

In his address, the Minister also highlighted the development of tourist infrastructure, balneological resorts, cable cars, competitive services and new attractive destinations, which are actively underway throughout the country.

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