Baku, Azerbaijan, August 9
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
The total number of visitors to Georgia increased by 4.3 percent in July 2019 compared to July 2018, while the number of tourists was up by 1 percent over the same period, Trend reports via TBC Research.
Non-tourism trips in July 2019 went up by 12.3 percent and the total number of travelers, including all types of visits of non-residents increased by 5.8 percent compared to the same period of 2018.
The research said that up to 5 percent growth of tourism inflows in USD terms over the next 12 months seems reasonable, with a 3.4-percent increase based on updated information. This implies around 6 percent and 9 percent increase in 2019 and 2020.
Without the flight ban issues with Russia (where the majority of tourists usually come from), the growth would have been around 17 percent over the next 12 months, as well as 15 percent and 16 percent for 2019 and 2020 respectively.
The projection is based on the assumption of around initial 30 percent and thereafter around 20 percent of inflows drop from Russia over July 2019 – June 2020, the base effect of Iran to wane starting from October 2019, inflows from Turkey, after being declining until June 2019, to rise by around 5 percent.
As for the other countries, trend rate of growth is assumed, however, with the declining tendency. For the major source countries/regions this translates into EU increasing at around 30 percent, Azerbaijan at around 5 percent, Israel at 20 percent, while Ukraine, other CIS countries, Middle East excluding Iran in the range of 15 to 25 percent and other countries in the range of 10-15 percent.
