Tourist arrivals up 4.2% y/y in April 2019
Total international arrivals (tourists and same-day arrivals) to Georgia increased by 3.7% y/y to 0.55mn in April 2019, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. This growth was mostly driven by tourists arrivals (+4.2% y/y to 0.35mn trips, 63.4% of total), while same-day arrivals also increased by 3.0% y/y. Out of top countries, in April 2019, international visitors increased from Russia (+26.5% y/y), Azerbaijan (+0.4%), Armenia (+4.1% y/y), Israel (+11.2% y/y) and Ukraine (+3.1%). Visitors continued to decline from Turkey (-7.6% y/y, though slower reduction in last two months) and Iran (-59.4% y/y). Visitors from the EU were up 28.7% y/y to over 32,700 visitors, with Germany, Poland and UK driving growth. In 4M19, total international visitors stood at 1.9mn (+1.9% y/y), of which tourist arrivals reached 1.2mn (+4.8% y/y). Meanwhile, tourism generated US$ 827.4mn (+4.8% y/y) in 4M19 by our estimates.
International reserves up 18.8% y/y in April 2019
Gross international reserves were up 18.8% y/y to US$ 3.6bn in April 2019 according to NBG. On a monthly basis reserves were up 4.2%. There were no FX interventions by NBG in April. Growth is reserves were attributed to government and/or banking sector FX operations.
