In January 2017, over 387,000 international visitors visited Georgia, which is  19.8 percent more than during the analogous period last year,  News-Georgia reports, citing Georgian National Tourism Administration.

According to the international classification, tourists are the visitor, who remain in the country for more than 24 hours and use the services of the service sphere—restaurants, hotels, etc.

Nearly 155,000 people out of the foreigners who visited Georgia in January 2017 remained in the country for over a day. Thus, the number of tourists increased by 32.4 percent as compared to January 2016.

The greatest number of visitors arrived in Georgia from the neighboring countries: Azerbaijan (+7.1%), Turkey (-0.8%), Armenia (+31.4%), Russia (+40.3%) and Ukraine (+28.2%).

The positive trend also retained from the EU countries. Georgia was especially popular with the residents of Lithuania (+47%), Bulgaria (+32%), Germany (+32%), Poland (+25%) and UK (+23%).

A significant growth of visitors was recorded from Iran (+617%), Uzbekistan (+231%), India (+158%), Israel (+158%), China (+78%), Kazakhstan (+32%) and Belarus (+25%).

In 2016, foreigners arrived in Georgia by motor vehicles (81%), by air (17%), only 1 percent visiting the country by railway and water transport each.

According to the Georgian National Tourism Administration, in 2016 the tourists spent $2 million USD in Georgia, which is 11 percent more than last year.