POLICY OF TOURISM BUSINESS IN GEORGIA IN THE POST-PANDEMIC PERIOD
Authors: Shanidze Goderdzi 
Published: February 2023

In Georgia, even today, in the post-pandemic period, the tourism business is quite relevant. The increase in tourist flows in the country has given rise to the prospect that the share of the tourism sector in the economy will increase, which is fully in line with the 2025 vision of the Georgian Tourism Strategy. The point to note here is that more attention should be paid to the quality and variety of visitors rather than the quantity of visitors.

In the 2025 "Tourism Strategy of Georgia" plan, which was developed in previous years and 2015 is taken as the base period, it is planned that the income from tourism should increase (from the existing 1.9 billion US dollars) to 6.6 billion US dollars. The share of the tourism sector in the GDP should be 7.9%. Increasing the average amount spent by visitors from the current $300 to $600. as well as increasing the average length of stay to 7 nights and doubling the number of visitors from the high-paying markets of Western Europe, Asia and North America.

Priority tourism activities in the country are: increasing state and private investments in the field of tourism; improvement of the business environment in order to promote the increase of the number of visits, foreign and local investments; attracting visitors from high-paying markets by means of effective marketing and information campaigns, as well as stimulating domestic tourism; Increasing competitiveness by offering world-class tourism services; Creating unique and authentic offers in tourism using natural and cultural heritage resources.

In the development of the country's tourism sector, the development of domestic tourism has gained great importance in the recent period. A number of measures were implemented during the pandemic period and in the subsequent period to stimulate domestic tourism.

The total number of domestic tourism visits in 2021 amounted to 16.9 million, which is +35.8% more than in the same period of the previous year, such a sharp increase is also due to the fact that in previous years, the tourism seasons during the pandemic period were unsuccessful.

According to the data of the National Bank, in 2021, Georgia received approximately 1.2 billion USD from international travel, which is 130% higher than the 2020 figure, and 62% lower than the 2019 figure.

Tourism is a priority direction for Georgia. In the pre-pandemic period, the number of international visitors and, accordingly, the income from international travel increased every year. Restoring the tourism sector is an important precondition for overcoming the crisis.

In the post-pandemic period, the development of tourism in Georgia, as well as around the world, has an undeniably great perspective, as evidenced by the data of the World Tourism Council. The travel and tourism industry is one of the fastest growing service sectors in the world. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), in 2021, the contribution of this industry to the total GDP amounted to 5.8 trillion USD (+21.7% growth compared to the previous year) and contributed to the creation of 289 million jobs. After taking into account its direct and side effects, the contribution of the mentioned sector to the development of the world economy is as follows: 6.1 % of the world GDP, one place for every 11 jobs.

From all of the above, we can conclude that: 1 from those countries, from which it is possible to attract high-paying tourists to our country, air and other means of transport should be simplified. 2. In order to attract high-paying tourists, it is necessary to properly arrange destinations and relevant events. 3. Internal transport networks should be improved to ensure free movement of visitor flows in the country. 4. It is also necessary to improve the quality of visitor services, so that tourists will have the desire to travel to our country again and again.