International visitors at 1.6mn in 2Q25
In 2Q25, international visitors to Georgia rose by 7.0% y/y to 1.6mn persons. This growth was mainly driven by a 10.7% y/y increase in tourist arrivals, which accounted for 80.1% of total arrivals. Meanwhile, same-day arrivals fell by 5.4% y/y in the same period. Visitors from Russia (+16.0% y/y) were the largest contributor to the total arrival growth, followed by Azerbaijan (+46.7% y/y, despite continued closure of the land border for leisure travel), EU (+20.5% y/y), Armenia (+7.2% y/y) and India (+33.5% y/y). On the downside, arrivals from Türkiye and Iran fell by 16.5% y/y and 8.2% y/y), respectively. Notably, most visitors traveled to Georgia via land (56.9% of total), followed by air (42.5% of total).
We estimate that tourism revenues increased by 9.1% y/y to US$ 1.2bn in 2Q25. Overall, tourism revenues reached US$ 2.0bn (6.2% y/y) in 1H25, by our estimate.
We forecast tourism revenues at US$ 4.5bn for 2025.
International reserves at US$ 4.7bn in Jun-25
Gross international reserves increased by 2.3% y/y to US$ 4.7bn in Jun-25, according to NBG. On a monthly basis, the reserves were also up by 2.3% (+US$ 103.3mn). Changes in reserves were attributed to the changes in government and/or banking sector FX operations, and likely also to NBG’s FX purchases via BMatch platform (information will be available on 25 July). Notably, as of Jun-25, monetary gold accounted for 16.1% of total international reserves.
