In Georgia, the average cost of a room in a 3-star hotel was 124 GEL per night in March 2021, while the average cost of a room in a 4-star hotel in Georgia was 219 GEL per night and the average cost of a room in a guesthouse was 80 GEL per night. The average cost of a room in a 5-star hotel in Georgia in March 2021 was 332 GEL per night. In Guria, the average price was 587 GEL, followed by Tbilisi - 436 GEL, Adjara - 295 GEL and Kakheti – 293 GEL.

To address the challenges posed by the pandemic, various government measures have been taken at both national and local levels. In order to withstand the economic recession, almost all countries, including Ukraine, have introduced significant fiscal stimulus packages. Exclusively for the 2020 fiscal year, the Government of Ukraine created a stand-alone budgetary program under the Ministry of Finance to fight the pandemic, with an overall budget of UAH 80.9 billion (or 2% of Ukraine’s 2019 GDP).  

In Georgia, the average cost of a room in a 3-star hotel was 126 GEL per night in February 2021, while the average cost of a room in a 4-star hotel in Georgia was 180 GEL per night and the average cost of a room in a guesthouse was 75 GEL per night. The average cost of a room in a 5-star hotel in Georgia in January 2021 was 345 GEL per night. In Guria, the average price was 464 GEL, followed by Samtskhe-Javakheti - 433 GEL, Tbilisi - 428 GEL and Kakheti – 329 GEL.

The number of international travelers declined by 91% in February compared to the same period of both, 2020 and 2019, while the number of international visitors fell by 90% and the number of international tourists fell by 86%; From March 2020 to February 19, 2021, 220 different hotels, and 11 744 hotel rooms, were utilized under the quarantine zones program. A total of 148 904 people stayed in these quarantine hotels over the covered period, and 3 644 people maintained their jobs in these hotels due to the program; From March 2020 up to and including January 2021, a total of GEL 66.6 mln was spent under the program, averaging GEL 6.1 mln per month. On average, 94 hotels and 6340 hotel rooms were utilized per month, and 32 GEL was spent per hotel room per day.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic heavily disrupted the world, causing both a global health emergency and a global economic crisis. While almost every country and every sector have been affected, economies reliant on the service sector, and especially the tourism industry, such as Georgia, have suffered notably. Indeed, measures taken to contain the spread of the virus have had an especially negative impact on the economy. Preliminary estimates suggest a decline in Georgia’s real GDP in 2020 of 6.1%, the sharpest drop since 1994.In this issue, we provide forecasts for the performance of the Georgian economy for 2021, namely regarding its real GDP growth rate, sector-specific growth rates, and employment.

According to a survey of Georgian economists, the economic climate in the country for the first quarter of 2021 has been and will continue to be worse than the last quarter of 2020. Their assessment of the current situation was also significantly worse than the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The economists’ predictions for Georgia’s economic situation for the next six months were also negative. Specifically, their expectations for this period remain similarly bleak to those stated in the final quarter of 2020, and were considerably more pessimistic than the forecasts they made at the same time last year.

The number of international travelers declined by 94.5% in January compared to the same period of 2020, while the number of international visitors fell by 93.6% and the number of international tourists fell by 91.9%; In January 2021, the year over year Hotel Price Index decreased by 33.8% in Adjara and by 28.5% in Samtskhe-Javakheti; The number of ski-lift users in Georgia grew significantly, by an annual average rate of 21%, from the 2014-2015 season up to and including the 2018-2019 season. However, compared to the 2018-19 season, the number of ski-lift users dropped by 20% during the 2019-2020 season, due to the looming COVID-19 pandemic which effectively brought the season to an early finish. Thereafter, the 2020-2021 season has been cancelled outright due to the ongoing epidemiological crisis; Sales per skiing day demonstrated significant growth from the 2014-2015 winter season up to and including the 2018-2019 winter season, growing by 33% annually on average in this period. It even registered modest growth (4%) in the 2019-2020 season.

In Georgia, the average cost of a room in a 3-star hotel was 118 GEL per night in January 2021, while the average cost of a room in a 4-star hotel in Georgia was 188 GEL per night and the average cost of a room in a guesthouse was 72 GEL per night.

In this issue, we overview trends in Ukraine’s labor market indicators through the past decade and compare the dynamics of unemployment rates of Eastern Partnership countries over the same period. In addition, we analyze the effects of COVID-19 on the key labor market indicators, as well as on average wages and number of vacancies posted in 2020.

In Georgia, the average cost of a room in a 3-star hotel was 123 GEL per night in December 2020, while the average cost of a room in a 4-star hotel in Georgia was 197 GEL per night and the average cost of a room in a guesthouse was 70 GEL per night.