Georgia is preparing for tourism recovery this year. According to various forecasts, including Fitch, the income of the tourism sector should be recovered to 30% of 2019, but it deeply depends on the epidemic and vaccination situation in those countries from which Georgia receives most tourists. The matter concerns to the five countries in the region, from which 61% of visitors came in 2019. It is hard to imagine reviving the tourism sector in the country without resuming visitors’ flow from these countries.
These countries are:
1) 1.5 million visitors came from Azerbaijan in 2019. As of today, the vaccination process has not started in Azerbaijan. There are 232,337 cases of COVID-19 in the country, although the number of new infections has dropped in recent weeks to 150 a day;
2) 1.47 million visitors came from Russia in 2019. As of today, 2.2 million people in Russia have been vaccinated, which is 1.5% of the population. The vaccination process in Russia started with the local Sputnik V vaccine. An average of 35,000 vaccines is produced daily in the country. At the same time, a total of 3,624,663 cases of COVID-19 have been registered in Russia, and the number of infected people is increasing by 13,000 every day.
3) 1.36 million visitors came from Armenia in 2019. As of today, the vaccination process has not started in Armenia. The total number of COVID-19 infections in the country totals to 169,391, while the number of new cases stands at 150 in a day.
4) 1.15 million visitors came from Turkey in 2019. As of today, 5.19 million people in the country have been vaccinated, which is 6.2% of the population, in addition to that 0.9% of population have received both doses of the vaccine. The vaccination process in Turkey started with the Chinese SinoVac, and it is planned to use Pfizer vaccines as well. The total number of COVID-19 infections in the country stands at 2,482,435, and the number of new cases amounts to 8,000 per day.
5) 207 thousand visitors came from Ukraine in 2019. As of today, the vaccination process is not started in the country yet. The total number of COVID-19 infections in the country amounts to 1,122,968, and the number of new cases is about 3 thousand per day.
Tourists’ flow from Israel was also important for the Georgian tourism sector. In 2019, 205 thousand visitors visited Georgia from Israel. 6.7 million people in the country are currently vaccinated, which is 74% of the population, including 29% of the population already have received both doses of the vaccine.
