Japanese and Indian Tourists Spend More than Other Asian Tourists in Georgia

The FINANCIAL -- The number of Asian tourists in Georgia is growing rapidly. 47,923 visitors from East Asia and Pacific crossed  over Georgia’s border in the first six months of 2012, which is 69 percent more than the 28,334 visitors who visited Georgia in the same period of 2011, according to the Georgian National Tourism Agency (GNTA).
The FINANCIAL -- The number of Asian tourists in Georgia is growing rapidly. 47,923 visitors from East Asia and Pacific crossed  over Georgia’s border in the first six months of 2012, which is 69 percent more than the 28,334 visitors who visited Georgia in the same period of 2011, according to the Georgian National Tourism Agency (GNTA).

The number of visitors from South Asia experienced growth of 84 percent in this period. 36,771 travelled to Georgia compared to the 20,010 visitors in 2011.

“The Asian segment is very important for Georgia and their number is growing gradually thanks to the activities of GNTA as well as the private sector including tourism agencies,” Beka Jakeli, Deputy Chairman of GNTA, told The FINANCIAL. “This is important for two reasons. The segment is very big and has the potential for huge growth. At the same time, they tend to spend a great deal of money. Japanese and Indian tourists in particular spend more money. Their overall number isn’t high enough yet, however the money they spend is significant.”

The aim of their travel is different, it includes leisure, business and cultural tours. Iran is the leader from South Asia in terms of sheer number of tourists. Their number increased by 92 percent in the six months of 2012 compared to the same six months of 2011. Indians also tend to travel a lot in Georgia. Visitors from other Southern Asian countries including Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal are mainly only business travellers, which don’t change the tourist climate in Georgia.

“Iranian tourists tend to travel during Bayram and their number is greatly increasing,” Jakeli explained. This is for the reason of effective advertisements in this country implemented by both GNTA and tourism agencies. Iranians like Georgia as there is a relatively free environment here and they are not limited. Iranians feel uncomfortable in many countries because of their religion and traditions, however that is not the case in Georgia. The majority of them travel to Adjara.”

“Indian tourists also do a lot of travelling in Georgia. This has been significantly supported by the entrance of Qatar Airlines in Georgia. Whereas they used to use Turkish Airlines they now prefer Qatar as it has several connecting flights to different cities in India from Doha. We welcome this fact as Indians are tourists that tend to spend large amounts.”

China and Japan are leaders from the East Asia and Pacific region. The number of Japanese travellers in the country isn’t high, but they spend significant amounts of money and therefore make up a more important segment than the tourists of certain other countries, who travel a lot yet take very economical trips.

Tbilisi now has direct flights to Urumqi, China. The Chinese Government officially recommends Georgia as one of the best destinations for its tourists. This is very important as Chinese people pay a lot attention to such official recommendations. If a country does not have such recommendation, then the Chinese tend to almost never travel there.

“In general eastern tourists, unlike western ones who are more interested in adventure tours, tend to prefer cultural tours,” Jakeli stated.

“The majority of Chinese tourists are business visitors, but some of them are interested in cultural tourism as well. Japanese tourists take cultural tours combined with educational ones. All tourists like Adjara, but out of all Asian countries it is mainly the Iranians that come for Georgia’s sea resorts.”

Korea is a very important, rapidly-growing market in the world, including for Georgia.

As the number of Asian tourists grows in Georgia, demand for guides of eastern languages grows as well. The number of guides is not small but still not high enough. Jakeli considers the situation to be acceptable but recommends there being more guides of Chinese, Japanese and Indian languages.

“We mainly have specialists of eastern languages who start working as guides. This isn’t bad but it would be much better if we had more professional guides. Demand is growing and their number must therefore grow as well.”

Free University and Tbilisi State University (TSU) have courses of eastern languages, but demand for these courses is not high enough. The  tuition fee at TSU for these courses is GEL 2,250. Some of the course graduates actually go on to work as guides and earn a significant salary.

Irina Shamanauri has a Bachelor’s degree in philology of the Japanese language. She works as a guide.

“When I started studying this course, everyone laughed at me, but now I have the best salary of all my friends,” Shamanauri claims. “There are not that many Japanese tourists here but at the same time, the number of guides is not many either which means that my salary is more than enough. Japanese tourists are mainly interested in cultural tours across the breadth of Georgia including Mtskheta, Kakheti, Kazbegi, Svaneti and Adjara.”

Georgia currently has direct flights to Dubai/UEA (three times a week), Tehran/Iran (twice a week), Urumqi/China (three times a week), Doha/Qatar (every day). The price per person for a round trip is EUR 260 to Dubai, EUR 315 to Iran, EUR 485 to Urumqi and EUR 378 to Doha, according to Business Travel Com.

Tbilisi has transit flights to other Asian cities including Colombo/Sri Lanka (every day), Tokyo/Japan (every day), Beijing/China (five times a week), Delhi/India (every day), Kathmandu/Nepal (four times a week) and Seoul/Korea (every day). The price per person for a round trip to Colombo, Sri Lanka is EUR 494, which is a newly popular destination. Other prices are: Tokyo - EUR 1,145, Beijing - EUR 688, Delhi - EUR 622, Kathmandu - EUR 534, and Seoul - EUR 98

Sourced: finchannel