Total international visitors (tourists and same-day combined) to Georgia were up 3.7% y/y to 0.5mn persons in April-19 after growing 4.6% y/y in previous month. This growth was driven by 4.2% y/y increase in tourist arrivals and 3.0% y/y growth in same-day arrivals Russia was the largest source of visitor growth, followed by Armenia and Kazakhstan. Visitors from the EU were up 28.7% y/y to almost 33k visitors, with Germany and Poland driving growth. From non-traditional markets visitors were pronounced from Israel.
From major source markets, visitors from Turkey continued to fall for 8th consecutive month, but with much slower reduction in last two months. Arrivals from Iran more than halved (down since Jun-18 with the exception of Nov-18), and is the major reason behind slowdown in tourist growth figures.
We expect tourist arrival growth to accelerate from 2H19, due to high season and fading effect of reduced visitors from Iran and Turkey.
Please see the full note here, which brings together tourist arrival data for reporting month, most recent statistical information available in the sector and 2019 forecast.
