ABSTRACT
Regardless of their healthcare systems' maturity and quality, the COVID-19 pandemic caused a slew of unexpected problems and harmful effects for people worldwide. Georgia responded to the pandemic's first wave (March-April 2020) with well-managed and well-coordinated activities based on the pandemic management principles: Find-Test-Trace-Isolate-Detect. Epidemiological monitoring, mobility limitations, and practical communication efforts were used to prevent and limit the spread of the infection, resulting in remarkable morbidity and mortality reductions. Due to pandemic fatigue, summer tourism brought increased mobility, disregard for mask-wearing, distancing habits and multiplication of regional clusters and two-rounds of Parliamentary elections with numerous mass meetings. All of these developments culminated in a remarkably different second wave with the pandemic hampering the growth of tourism, a significant sector of the Georgian economy that accounts for 8% of GDP and employs around 150, 000 people. It also exponentially increased morbidity and high mortality (40-55 daily deaths) in October-November 2020. The most popular tourist destinations in Georgia are Tbilisi, Ajara, Kvemo Kartli, Imereti, and Mtskheta-Mtianeti. COVID-19 severely harmed Georgia's tourism industry, especially international arrivals. In 2020, compared to 2019, international tourist visits to Georgia decreased by 80%. This research focuses on how the COVID-19 pandemic affected Georgia's tourism industry in terms of structure and geography. The study was conducted from March to December 2020. It employs the following methods: data collection, processing, an analysis from official Georgian sources, as well as the results of the authors' sociological survey, a review of academic and media articles on the subject, and preliminary analysis using GIS technologies. The key finding is that the COVID-19 pandemic had the greatest negative impact on Georgia's tourism market causing significant economic harm. International tourism dropped sharply, but domestic tourism remained nearly unchanged from previous years, revealing tourists' new regional preferences. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.