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total exports. Travel & Tourism investment was USD814.4bn, or 4.3% of total investment
(WTTC. World, 2015).
Tourism market has become global, as a result new opportunities for the development of
international tourism, for the diversification of the tourism product, for increasing
awareness about the possibilities of tourist choice among tourism products, for the
expansion of opportunities of free movement around the world, and so on has aroused.
International tourism contributes to the formation of a new type of spatial relations and
contributes to cultural enrichment of countries and nations.
In recent years, international tourism has a tendency of spatial concentration and change in
the motion vector of tourist flows. In 1950, the 15 leading countries in the export of travel
accounted for 97% of the global travel market, their share dropped to 80.6% in 2005 and
amounted to 79.6% in 2013. In 2005, the share of 15 leading countries for travel imports
amounted to 85.3%, in 2013 - 82% (WTO. Statistics).
Against the background of the importance of tourism in the global economy, there is a
natural question about the role of Georgia in the global tourism market. Georgia is a small
country and its presence in the global market mainly depend on the size of the economy,
tourist attraction, taking into account the best international practices and modern trends in
tourism development.
Currently, tourism in Georgia is a priority sector of the economy, which resulted in increased
flow of foreign tourists. Georgia has become attractive for summer holidays, and as well as a
winter resort. It has the objective prerequisites for more active access to the world tourism
market. The basis for the rapid development of tourism in Georgia are the variety of natural
resources, historical and cultural heritage, but this tourism potential is poorly researched
and used. For Georgia, the international tourism becomes a source of foreign exchange
earnings, job creation without major funding, small business development, and increase in
the rate of economic growth of the country. In connection with the aforementioned
purpose of this study is to explore the possibilities and prospects of Georgia in the global
tourism market.
Trends in the development of international tourism in Georgia
Tourism is a complex geospatial and socio-economic system, so the analysis of the trends of
its development and improvement should be primarily based on a systematic approach.
Tourism as a system was considered by N. Leiper, Prof. of Meissen University (Auckland,
New Zealand) (Leiper, 2004). Leiper (2004) conceptualizes tourism as an open system
comprising five interrelated elements: one human element (tourists), three geographical
elements (traveler-generating region, tourist destination region, and transit route), and one
industrial element (tourist industries). Tourism could be also viewed from external forces
such as political, economic, and technological environments. This model was originally
proposed by Leiper in 1979. The label “whole tourism systems” was adapted when Getz
(1986) coined the term “whole system models” (25) of tourism in his review of tourism
models. The latest version of the whole tourism systems model is presented in Leiper
(2004). Leiper’s (1979) tourism systems model was proposed to reduce fragmentation in
tourism research, a problem he believed stemmed from its multidisciplinary nature. The
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