Highlights, June 2022
Total international visitors stood at 387,781 persons – up 164.4% y/y and accounting for 53.3% of 2019 level, highest in two years. This growth was predominantly driven by increase in tourist arrivals recovering at 64.1% of 2019 level (up from 62.3% recovery in previous month). Recovery in same-day trips slightly accelerated, recovering at 33.3% of 2019 level (up from 28.6% recovery in previous month) reflecting gradual easing of regulations of neighboring countries. Top country by arrivals was Russia (23.3% of total), followed by Turkey (16.0%), and Armenia (16.0%). Notably, number of visitors from Kazakhstan, Belarus and Uzbekistan surpassed 2019 levels.
Tourism revenues stood at post-pandemic record high US$ 301.7mn in Jun-22, up 3.8x y/y and accounting for 88.7% of 2019 level (down from 95.6% in previous month). Markedly, this tourism revenue figure captures also migrants impact (from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine), arriving in Georgia after Russia-Ukraine war started. We estimate, that around 80,000-120,000 visitors relocated in Georgia for longer term than regular tourists. Russia accounted for 22.7% of tourism revenues in June-22, followed by EU countries (10.1% of total), Belarus (9.3%) and Turkey (9.3%). We expect tourism revenues to recover at 85% of 2019 level in a baseline scenario, however considering strong figures in May-June and migrant impact, full recovery is also likely.
