International branded hotel projects in Georgia are behind schedule. Out of the 27 international branded hotels in our 2016-2018 pipeline, only four have been completed, while three projects have been cancelled. Of the remaining 20 projects, only four are expected to be finished on time.
Five international midscale branded hotels were added to the Georgian market in 2017. Notably, only one of them, the 3-star Ibis Styles, was opened in Tbilisi. The 5-star Wyndham Hotel and 4-star Best Western Plus opened in Batumi, while the 4-star Golden Tulip was added to the international hotel stock in Borjomi.
International travel inflows to Georgia increased 27.0% y/y to US$ 2.75bn in FY17, according to NBG’s preliminary estimates. Foreign card operations in Georgia were up 30.3% y/y to GEL 1.9bn in 11M17. Tourism value added was up 11.5% y/y to GEL 1.5bn in 9M17 and accounted for 7.0% of GDP.
The number of international arrivals was up 18.8% y/y to 7.6mn visitors in FY17. The number of visitors increased from all major source countries, except Turkey (-0.8% y/y). The largest individual contributor to overall growth was Russia (+34.1% y/y), while Armenia and Azerbaijan also posted double-digit increases.
The tourist category continues to drive arrival growth in December 2017. The number of overnight visitors (‘tourist’ category) was up 31.7% y/y and accounted for 39.2% of international arrivals. The transit category was also a major contributor (+54.9% y/y), while the number of same-day arrivals was up 6.7% y/y. The number of tourist arrivals in FY17 is up 27.9% y/y to 3.5mn, surpassing the annual figure for FY16 by 0.8mn tourists.
