(Tbilisi, August 22, 2003, Civil Georgia) – “The umber of tourists that have arrived in Abkhazia this summer has reached pre-war levels [the armed conflict took place from 1992-93],” de facto Tourism Minister of Abkhazia, Astamur Adleiba, told Civil Georgia on August 22.
According to estimates from the Georgian State Department for Statistics, about 202,000 tourists were annually visiting Abkhazia before the conflict.
As the Minister reports, most tourists arrive from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine !
and other CIS countries.
Mr. Adlieba reported that over 45,000 tourists arrived in Gagra this summer. However, exact figures concerning the number of tourists will be verified in September, when results for the first nine months of 2003 will be summed up.
The Abkhaz de facto Minister welcomes the increase of private business in the sphere of tourism, saying that if it were not for the blockade, many more tourists would have come to Abkhazia.
The Georgian State Department for Tourism casts doubts over the data, claiming that the statistics from the Abkhaz side “are extremely exaggerated.”
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