The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Georgian Tourism and its Main Segment – the Hotel Industry

The Covid-19 pandemic, along with human casualties, caused significant damage to many sectors of the economy, primarily, tourism and its main segment – the hotel industry. Before the pandemic, in 2019, in the period of the country's independence, Georgia's tourism reached the highest number. The number of tourist visits reached 5,1 million. Revenues from tourism were 8,4% of GDP, and the number of people working in the industry was 11,6% of the total number of employees in the country. At the end of the first year of the pandemic, international tourist visits to Georgia decreased by 78,5% (in 2020) and 66% of hotels and catering facilities in Georgia stopped their activities. During the epidemic period by the government's decision lots of hotels were used as quarantine spaces and Covid-rooms. In order to overcome the crisis, targeted measures were developed – financial benefits, assistance and special activities were provided for the subjects of the tourism industry, but the crisis management plan was deficient and the need for changes after the pandemic was not considered in it. Pandemic has exacerbated the outflow of personnel and redeployment to other fields. It is expected that the demand for medical-refreshing, as well as ecological adventure travel tours will increase among the other types of tourism in the post-pandemic period, consequently, appropriate accommodation should be provided for the guests.