Georgia is continuing to grow its reputation as an up-and-coming international tourist destination and locals are seeking out ways to explore the beauty of their home country.
The National Statistics Office of Georgia, Geostat, released data yesterday reflecting the number of internal tourists, their age and intention for nationwide travel.
Figures showed over the past 12 months, the number of local citizens who visited another Georgia region was steady, with most spending time away from home in the summer months of July-September.
Specifically Geostat revealed in the second quarter (Q2) of 2014 952,000 local residents visited another region. This increased in Q3 2014 over the warmer months where 1,124,900 people visited another region then figures slightly dropped in Q4 2014, when 832,900 people travelled internally.
In Q1 2015, 798,600 people went on a regional visit and in Q2 2015 this jumped slightly, with figures noting 841,700 people visited another region.
People aged between 31 and 50 were the most avid domestic travellers; in the first half of this year 604,000 people in this age category went on some sort of regional visit. The next most eager travellers were people aged 51-70, followed by people aged 15-30 and finally those aged 71 and older.
Meanwhile year-on-year (y/y) the number of males who travelled internally was slightly higher than the number of females who went on a domestic jaunt.
Tbilisi was the country’s most popular destination for domestic travellers, said Geostat. In the first half of this year 413,300 people visited Georgia’s capital. The next most popular region to visit was western Imereti region (348,400 visitors), followed by the western seaside Adjara region (163,800 visitors) and the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region (139,000 visitors).
Regarding these figures, Geostat noted it was possible people visited more than one region.
The most common reason for domestic travel between January-June 2015 was for people to visit friends or relatives (54 percent), while the next most common reasons for internal travel was for health or medical care (11.4 percent), shopping (11.3 percent) then holiday, leisure or recreation (5.7 percent).
The majority of people who travelled this year were satisfied with their regional visits, while about one percent was very dissatisfied with their travels.
Source:agenda.ge |
September 15, 2015
