Average length of stay of visitor trips was up to 6.2 days in 2022, compared to 4.1 in 2019. Such drastic growth could be explained by increased share of tourists compared to same-day visitors in arrival mix.

Most visitors traveled for holiday, leisure and recreation purpose, accounting for 53.6% of total in 2022 (43.5% in 2019), followed by visiting friends and relatives (20.0% in 2022 vs 19.0%) and transit visits (13.6% in 2022 vs13.6% in 2019).

Notably share of business visitors was down to 6.6% of total in 2022 from 10.8% in 2019, because MICE tourism suffered most from pandemic.

Notably, average expenditure of tourists increased drastically to GEL 2,298 in 2022 from GEL 1,102 in 2019, likely affected by 1) high inflation, 2) increased share of tourists and 3) increase of non-neighboring countries in visitor mix (which generally spend more).

Food and drinks was the largest tourism expenditure item (33.2% of the total), followed by accommodation (31.0%) and shopping (15.4%) in 2022.