Russia is working on the issue of opening air communication with Georgia, and the Georgian side is generally ready for this. No wonder: “long-term” tourists and emigrants, who fled en masse to Georgia from Russia from sanctions after February 24, have increased the income of Georgian tourism affected by covid by five times. It is logical that the country is counting on the continuation of this trend. By the way, the Upper Lars land border crossing between Russia and Georgia will also be open soon.
According to TASS, the fact that such a possibility is being discussed was announced at a high level – Chairman of the Committee of the Federation Council on International Affairs Grigory Karasin on the sidelines of the XIII International Economic Summit “Russia-Islamic World: KazanSummit 2022” said that work on the resumption of air traffic with Georgia is underway. “Hopefully, we will work in this direction,” the senator said.
The Georgian side, we note, also does not mind. Earlier, Zurab Abashidze, Special Representative of the Prime Minister of Georgia for the settlement of relations with Russia, said that the Georgian authorities are “ready to restore air communication with Russia if the Russian side has similar intentions.”
Let us add that Georgia has not joined the sanctions anti-Russian hysteria. Although, judging by the numbers, she won a lot on it. According to the statistics presented by the National Tourism Administration of the Georgian Ministry of Economy, more than 105,000 Russians arrived in Georgia from January to April. This is six times more than in the same period last year. In total, in January-April, foreigners made more than 820 thousand trips to the republic, which is 272% more than the same indicator for 2021. Over 2.2 million trips were made to Georgia in the first four months of 2019. A significant part of Russians, as it is easy to assume, are long-term tourists and defectors who fled due to sanctions and other political fears.
And, even despite the fact that many of them had to return, they invested quite well in the Georgian economy. Georgia's income from foreign tourists from January to April 2022 amounted to more than $581 million, which is more than five times higher than in 2021. In general, tourism revenue in the first four months of 2022 reached 68.9% from the same period in pre-Covid 2019, when, by the way, Russia was partially closed. In April 2022 alone, Georgia received more than $188 million from tourists, which is $139 million more than in April 2021.
Recall that the land route has also been simplified: restrictions and justification requirements have been removed for those traveling by car. Read more at this link.
For those who care about a healthy lifestyle, we recommend reading: “The psychologist named the reason why men do not show their emotions and why it is dangerous.”
➔ Do you watch news on your smartphone? Subscribe to tourism news from Turprom in Google News or Google Discover: these are fresh travel ideas, travel news and collections of sales of tours and air tickets! Or subscribe to the travel news channel at YANDEX.ZEN or at PULSE.MAIL.RU. We also recommend subscribing to our News Channel in Telegram: https://t.me/tourprom