Nearly 900,000 visits to protected areas, and 41% were Georgians

The Agency of Protected Areas reported roughly 900,000 visitors across its sites in January to August 2026. Georgian citizens made up 41% of them, which leaves international visitors as the larger group. The agency's own revenue was 48% higher than in the same months of 2025 — a faster rise than any plausible increase in visitor numbers alone, which points to ticketing, pricing or services rather than simply more people through the gate.

Prometheus Cave, Martvili Canyon and Mtirala National Park led the list — not Kazbegi, not Tusheti, not Vashlovani. Two of the three are a short drive from Kutaisi and the third is behind Batumi, which says something plain about how most visitors actually use protected areas: as a half-day stop off a beach or city holiday rather than as a destination in themselves. For an operator, that is where the demand is, and it is also why the margins there are thin and the competition heavy.

Two readings are useful. First, 41% domestic share means a product priced and explained only in English is ignoring four visitors in ten. Second, the busiest sites are also the ones most likely to feel crowded at midday in August, which is the opening for anything that moves people off that timetable — early starts, shoulder-season dates, the quieter park half an hour further on. Both are judgements about positioning, and neither needs a bigger marketing budget.