Georgia earned $105 million from tourism in February

In February 2022, 165,626 international travellers visited Georgia, which is 35.3% more than in the same period of 2019 and 297% more than in February 2021, according to the data of the National Tourism Administration of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia.

The number of tourists visits especially increased in February. During this month of 2022, 137,148 international tourists visited Georgia, which is 55.4% more than in the same period of 2019 and 282% more than in February 2021.

The Georgian administration emphasised that the rapid dynamics of tourism recovery also affected revenues, which in February 2022 amounted to $105.218 million, which is 91.568 million or 670.8% more than in the same period in 2021 (by 62.2% more than in February 2019).

Georgia’s tourism revenue in 2021 amounted to $1.2 billion ($3.3 billion in 2019 and $427.7 million in 2020), in total, about 1.6 million tourist visits were made to the country last year (9. 3 million visitors in 2019 and 1.7 million in 2020), which is 45.1% more than in 2020. Compared to the pre-pandemic period, the data has been restored by 31% (according to Georgian Statistics, pre-pandemic tourism accounted for about 10% of the Georgian economy).

Direct investment in Georgia doubled in 2021

The volume of foreign direct investment in Georgia in 2021 amounted to $1.153 billion ($572 million in 2020), which is twice as much as in 2020. This is due to an increase in all three components of FDI - equity capital, reinvestment ($760 million) and debt obligations, according to preliminary data from the National Statistics Service.

The share of the top three investors in total FDI, according to preliminary data for 2021, was 69.8%. The top five FDI countries are as follows: UK - $596.6 million (51.8%), Netherlands - $125.9 million (10.9%), Czech Republic - $81.8 million (7.1%), Turkey — $64.7 million (5.6%) and Russia — $58.6 million (5.1%).

At the same time, the share of the three largest sectors in terms of foreign direct investment in 2021 amounted to 72.1%. The largest volume of foreign direct investment fell on the financial sector, amounting to $443.3 million (38.5%). This is followed by: entertainment, recreation, and other services - $230.5 million, energy - $157.0 million, industry - $143 million and real estate - $84.1 million.