Summer is over: fewer covers, a different guest mix

Calendar summer is over. Geostat Q3 is due 30 September. Three series — the restaurant floor, Q2, and H1 — not one panic number.

Summer is over: fewer covers, a different guest mix

31 August 2026

Calendar summer is over. Official July–August inbound figures from Geostat are not out yet: Q3 inbound is due 30 September. So nobody can honestly close the season with one national “minus X percent.” You can stack three different series that already exist — and not mash them into one panic number.

Terrace at the end of summer — fewer covers, a different guest mix

Three series, not one scare

The floor, late July.
Kote Gabritchidze, president of Georgia’s Restaurant Association: 20–25% fewer tourists in restaurants than a year ago. May “practically didn’t exist” because of the cold; June was almost continuous rain. About half of foreign guests usually come from Russian-speaking / post-Soviet countries; visitors from Israel and Iran have nearly disappeared. Source: Georgia Today, 27 July 2026. That is the terrace talking, not Geostat.

The country, Q2 (April–June) — Geostat, 30 July 2026

Metric Value Change (YoY)
International visitors 1.3 million −5.2%
Visits 1.5 million −4.5%
Overnight tourist visits 1.2 million −2.7%
Non-resident traveller arrivals 1.7 million −4.9%
Visit spending GEL 3.0 billion −13.3%
Average spend per visit GEL 1,922.1 −9.2%
Food and drinks GEL 819.7 million (27.3% of spend) GEL 524.1 per visit

Top visitor markets in Q2: Russia 25.1% (328,900 visitors), Turkey 16.9%, Armenia 10.8%. Top regions: Tbilisi 875,500 visits, Adjara 621,300.

Sources: Geostat PDF, Civil.ge.

Slightly fewer visitors. Clearly less money per visit. That matters more than “the season died.”

The country, January–June — Tourism Administration.
Revenues $1.9 billion (−2%). EU and UK visits in the first half: a record 249,201 (+23.4%), revenues from those markets $335.7 million (+21.2%). Source: Georgia Today.

July — an estimate, not Geostat.
Galt & Taggart: July tourism revenues $590 million (+7.1%); January–July $2.5 billion, about last year’s level. Source: 10 August 2026 report. Bank estimate. Do not confuse it with 20–25% fewer restaurant covers in July.

Mix, not a wipeout

The association piece also says: Armenia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Russia remain; Turkey is next door; South Korea, China and Thailand are growing; India slowed after IndiGo suspended direct flights; British visitors are showing up (new UK routes, including low-cost), plus Italy, Greece and Poland.

Geostat does not contradict that: in Q2 Russia was still the largest visitor market. What moved is who pays and how much. Average stay even ticked up (5.48 nights) while spend per visit fell.

What to do in the first week of September

Step 1. Write August down while you still remember
Seven to fourteen days: where guests came from, language, booked or walk-in, terrace or indoor. If that lives only in Instagram Direct and a notebook, you are guessing the mix.

Step 2. Do not copy last September’s staffing from last summer’s June
By the time Geostat publishes Q3 (30 September), the floor should already have its own picture. Do not copy last September’s staffing from last summer’s June. A cold May and a wet June already ate part of the terrace. Autumn is a different rhythm and a different guest.

Step 3. Write the room for the guests who actually sat down this summer
A menu and a booking path a guest from the EU, the UK or Korea can use is not theatre. It is how the new flow takes a table while the familiar one is weaker.

Your own booking page and guest data in one place will not rewind the summer. They exist so that by wine season you have a list — who booked, who came, who did not — not a story that “there seem to be fewer Russian speakers”.

The phone and Instagram stay. A digital booking channel shows the mix after the season has closed and before the national report arrives.

Sources: