China and Kazakhstan stand out as the markets with most potential in terms of expanding Georgia’s tourism sector,- PMCG's monthly report reads.
Tourists coming to Georgia have customarily originated from a small concentrated selection of countries. Specifically, in 2019, 71.4%of all international visitors to Georgia came from its four neighboring countries. However, in August 2021, the corresponding proportion amounted to just 40.8%, mostly due to an increase in the number of visits from Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan.
"The outbreak of the pandemic has heavily damaged tourism, however, the current crisis and changing behavior of tourists also presents some opportunities to redesign tourism policies to bring greater diversification to the industry. Visitors from the Gulf states, the USA, and some European countries tend to spend considerably more than the average visitor per visit and are already targeted by current marketing campaigns. However, China and Kazakhstan stand out as the markets with the most potential in terms of expanding Georgia’s tourism sector, yet both are currently receiving limited attention",- PMCG notes in the report.
In 2019, the average expenditure per visit of a Chinese visitor to Georgia was 1,908GEL, which means visitors from China spend nearly five times that of the average visitor from the largest source market, namely Azerbaijan (396GEL) and higher compared to all other traditional tourism markets of Georgia. Meanwhile, the average length of visit of Chinese visitors to Georgia was 7.7 nights in 2019, which is also longer than that of Georgia's traditional source markets. As for Kazakhstan, the average expenditure per visit for Kazakh visitors in 2019 was 1818GEL, while their average length of stay was 7.4 nights.
In previous years, the number of Kazakh visitors to Georgia had been persistently growing and reached 103,611 visitors in 2019, representing a leap of 75.7% compared to 2018. Moreover, there is significant potential for further development of
the tourism relationship between Georgia and Kazakhstan courtesy of the recent introduction of regular and direct low-budget flights from three cities of Kazakhstan via FlyArystanV, the easing of entry regulations, and through the general enhancement of economic cooperation between the two countries.
"In 2019, the number of visitors from China reached 48,071, displaying a considerable 50.9% year-on-year increase. The majority of Chinese tourists are from low- or middle-income groups who are largely attracted to budget-friendly tourist destinations, such as Georgia. Cooperation between the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia and China’s leading travel agencies, accompanied by regular flights being provided by China Southern Airlines, means the situation is promising for the post-pandemic development of tourism from China. Considering that China is one of Georgia’s largest trading partners, and as Georgia is viewed as part of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), there is great potential for developing business tourism with China as well", - PMCG reports.
The number of international travelers1 increased by 538.3% in August 2021, compared to the same period of 2020, and declined by 77.3% compared to the same period in 2019. Meanwhile, the number of international visitors2 increased by 510.5% (2021/2020) and declined by 75.5% (2021/2019), and the number of international tourists increased by 615.2% (2021/2020) and declined by 67.2% (2021/2019).
