Russian Travel Embargo to Georgia will Impact Tourism

The Russian embargo on travel to Georgia has drawn attention to the growing role that tourism plays in Georgias economy, and how much Georgia stands to suffer from the loss of Russian tourists.There are several reasons to believe that the recent embargo on Russian tourists flying to Georgia could have a noticeable impact on the Georgian economy. Russia is one of the largest sources of tourists into Georgia; of the 8.7 million international visitors to Georgia in 2018, 1.4 million (or 16.2 percent) came from Russia.Russia also has accounted for a large share of the increase in visitors in recent years. Total international travellers increased by 51.3 percent between 2013 and 2018. During the same time visits from Russia more than doubled, from 606,668 to 1.4 million. Between 2017 and 2018 alone, the number of Russian visitors to Georgia grew by 23.8 percent.