The Pandemic and Tourism in Georgia

Abstract

The article highlights the overview of the Georgian tourism sector; The economic downturn caused by the pandemic; Rising unemployment; Anti-crisis plan for tourism; The spread of COVID-19 is a significant challenge not only in the field of health, it has covered all social and economic aspects of our lives. The virus, which was originally detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, has spread rapidly around the world. On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the 2019-2020 coronavirus epidemic an international public health threat, and on March 11, a pandemic. The pandemic has caused significant damage to almost all sectors of the economy, most severely the tourism sector, including all the areas that make up this industry. Tourism is one of the main sources of growth in economic activity and accounts for 10% of world GDP. It is considered a vulnerable economic activity because it is relatively more sensitive to external shocks. Tourism is a very valuable and important source of employment for the population, inflow of foreign currency into the country, regional and infrastructural development, economic and social progress, creation of various products or services in the country. Therefore, the recent developments have had a direct impact on countries' revenues, which has ultimately led, directly or indirectly, to large losses. According to the spread of the virus, the worst situation is in the countries that have been the most popular destinations for tourists in recent years (Italy, France, Spain, USA). It can be said that the large number of tourists turned out to be the main reason for the rapid spread of COVID-19 in these countries. Keywords: International tourism, the Pandemic, Economic crisis, Domestic tourism.