Gartskiya: Abkhazia was visited by more than 1 million tourists

Minister of Resorts and Tourism of Abkhazia Avtandil Gartskiya summed up the interim results of the tourist season in the country.

Sukhum. September 8. Apsnypress. So, according to minister, it is expected that the growth in tourist traffic this year compared with the previous period will be at least 15%. This the minister of resorts and tourism of Abkhazia Avtandil Gartskiya told the portal TourDom.ru.

  "At the moment, Abkhazia was visited by 1.1 million tourists", - said Gartskiya. He noted that these statistics took into account those who come to rest, and those who visit the republic for the purpose of sightseeing. Last season the figure was 1.3 million tourists.
 
 At the same time, tour operators note that the official statistics do not reflect the real picture, because it accounts each border crossing, which is why the figures are exaggerated. But they suggest that the demand for tours to the republic significantly increased in comparison with figures of 2015.
 
 "With respect to last year, the demand increased at least twice. Hotels were filled at 100% the entire season, even those new ones, opened this year. Demand clearly exceeded the capacity of existing beds capacity of Abkhazia ", - tour operator ALEAN.
 
 According to tour operators, about 20 thousand tourists purchased trips to Abkhazia this year  - this is for 4000 more than last year. In August, the company recorded an increase in demand of 30% compared to the same period last year, at the beginning of September the growth was 20%. "But sales have not stopped", - underlined the company.
 
 According to Director of Sales "NTK Intourist" Sergey Tolchyn, Abkhazia this year met the expectations of market participants by increasing the length of the season and the expansion of hotel base. "This year, the charter program started earlier than usual. The depth of sales was good. We have noted the increase in bookings more than four times. The main share of growth came in May and September, because in high season the infrastructure loading was the maximum", - he said.
 
According to experts, organized tourist flow from Russia to Abkhazia will be 250-300 thousand tourists for the year.