Russians leading in foreign visitors to Georgia
Russians lead foreign visitors to Georgia
For the sixth month in a row Russia has been leading in the statistics of foreign visitors to Georgia. According to the National Tourism Administration, 108,247 Russians visited Georgia in November, 362% or a full four times more than in the same period last year.
The tourism administration makes a distinction between traveler, visitor, and tourist.
● A traveler is a person who travels voluntarily and moves both within and outside one country. More specifically, it is any person who travels from their own country and whose main purpose is precisely the journey, carried out by means of vehicles or on foot;
● A visitor – a traveler who leaves their permanent place of residence for a period not exceeding twelve months, the purpose of which is not to obtain a job and move to the country of destination;
● A tourist is any category of visitors who stay at a destination for one or more days. It should be noted that at this stage in Georgia, migrants are not separated from tourists. Consequently, the citizens of Russia and Belarus who came to Georgia in connection with the war that began in Ukraine are included in the tourism statistics.
Here are detailed statistics on visitors to Georgia in November 2022:
- Russia – 108,247 (up 362.1% year-on-year);
- Turkey – 101,940 (up 212.9%);
- Armenia – 71,785 (up 272.1%);
- Georgia (non-residents) – 25,932 (up 71.6%);
- Israel – 15,386 (up 27.9%);
- Ukraine – 13,631 (up 56.7%);
- Azerbaijan – 12,419 (up 54%);
- Belarus – 6,675 (up 142.9%);
- Iran – 6,508 (up 121%);
- Kazakhstan – 6,253 (up 21.5%)
According to a monetary policy report published by the National Bank in October, only 80,000 Russian citizens who entered Georgia are migrants.
And according to the Institute for the Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), in just the first seven months of 2022, 1,598 people received Georgian citizenship, of which 723 are Russian citizens. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, 551 Russian citizens and eight Ukrainian citizens received Georgian citizenship as an exception.
From the time of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine until August 31, 45,349 Russian citizens have opened new accounts in Georgian commercial banks. IDFI explains that this indicates migration and not tourism.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian citizens have purchased a total of 2,964 apartments and 37.9 hectares of land in Georgia, according to Batumelebi magazine. Russian citizens in Georgia have also registered 711 legal entities, and 9,789 Russian citizens have been registered as individual entrepreneurs.
