The Georgian Deputy Economy Minister Mariam Kvrivishvili said the country had hosted 1.3 million international travellers in the first quarter of the year and received “record-high” revenues of over $800 million.

Kvrivishvili said the domestic tourism industry had been “fully restored” to pre-pandemic levels and exceeded them by 40 percent, and noted a “positive dynamic” was also observed in terms of flights through the country’s western Kutaisi International Airport.

She added the Tbilisi International Airport in the capital had served more than 337,000 passengers in a 21 percent increase compared to last year’s figures.

The Deputy Minister also noted Georgia was scheduled to host the United Nations World Tourism Organisation’s World Tourism Day in September, with a number of international delegates and media visiting the country.

"Each of us together, with the private sector, will have the opportunity to represent the tourism potential of our country. All this creates positive expectations that tourism results will be even more record-breaking, [that] we will host more international travelers, bring in new airlines and [that] there will be more direct flights to our strategically important target countries”, the Deputy Minister stated.

Kvrivishvili also said it was “important that domestic politicians are not influenced by narrow party interests, creating negative expectations and spreading misinformation”, claiming the circumstance “harms the country's economy and small and medium-sized entrepreneurs who are directly involved” in the tourism industry.