As the National Tourism Administration of the Republic reported, 191 700 Russian citizens visited Georgia in January-August 2020, which is 5,5 times less than the figure for the same period in 2019.
In terms of the number of citizens who visited Georgia over eight months of this year, Russians have moved from the first position to the fourth. In the first place are the citizens of Azerbaijan, where 279,4 thousand people came from (- 3,7 times), in the second place is Turkey (260,6 thousand people, - 3,1 times), and in the third place is Armenia (223, 9 thousand people, - 3,9 times). TOP-5 is also includes citizens of Ukraine (36,7 thousand people, - 3.7 times), followed by citizens of Israel, Iran, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Poland and other countries.
According to the ministry, in January-August 2020, 1 million 544,1 thousand foreigners visited Georgia, which is 4,1 times less than in the same period last year. Of these number, there were 919,4 thousand tourists, who spent more than 24 hours in the Republic (a decrease of 3,8 times), the rest visitors came with other purposes.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Georgia, both the country's air, land and sea borders have been closed to passengers since March 21. Only cargo can be transported; the country also receives Georgian citizens who intend to return to their homeland.
The Georgian authorities hoped to open the country to tourists from July 1 and restore regular international flights with other countries, but this decision has already been postponed three times due to the epidemiological situation in the country and the world (the last time until October 1). The only exception was made for flights to Paris, Munich and Riga.
Georgia, with a population of 3.7 million, was visited by a record number of foreigners in 2019 - 9 million 358 thousand people, which is 7,8% more than in 2018.
