Money spent by tourists in Georgia has been on the increase in all activities within the sector. For example, money spent on food throughout 9 months of 2018 showed an increase of 59% when compared to the same period of the previous year, money spent on accommodation increased by 45%, the amounts spent on shopping increased by 32%, and money spent on transport increased by 18.4%.
According to G&T’s information, last year 6 franchise hotels were opened in Georgia: Moxy by Marriott, which has 130 rooms in total; Ramada Encore, which offers 152 rooms; Best Western City Centre, offering a total of 44 rooms; the Best Western Premier, with 104 rooms in total; Best Western Sairme, which has 81 rooms, and the 5 star Radisson Collection Tsinandali offering 120 rooms.
For contrast, in 2014, 1,623 rooms were available in Georgia but by 2018 this figure had reached 3,770.
Based on G&T’s projection, in 2019 tourism is expected to grow by 11.4% which comes to 5.3 million visitors. G&T projects that revenues generated by tourism will increase up to 3.6 billion USD which is 12.3% higher than the previous year.