Georgia’s official figures put the Gulf states at 145,513 visits in 2025 and India at 142,476. Each is about 2 percent of the 6.9 million visits Georgia counted that year. Two mid-sized markets, then: India growing, the Gulf close to flat, and both knocked back hard in the first half of 2026.
This piece is for the concierge in Riyadh or Mumbai, or the family planning its own trip. It covers the numbers, what changed this year, what each passport needs, which flights exist, and what a car costs once the plane is down.
What the 2025 numbers show
The Georgian National Tourism Administration’s 2025 statistical overview puts visits from the Gulf countries at 145,513, up 3.4 percent on 2024. Saudi Arabia accounts for 96,340 of them, about two in three. Saudi visits rose 9.1 percent, against 3.4 percent for the Gulf as a whole, which means the other Gulf states together sent fewer visits than in 2024.
India is the market that is growing. It was Georgia’s eighth-largest in 2025, up 15 percent, and on its own it sent almost as many visits as the whole Gulf. Saudi Arabia, the largest Gulf market, ranked twelfth.
For scale, Georgia’s big markets are another order of size. Russia sent 1,579,764 visits, Turkey 1,248,881, Armenia 948,242 and Israel 402,426, and the EU and the United Kingdom together a record 499,890. Russia alone sent nearly eleven times as many visits as the Gulf states combined.
What the two markets share is the overnight stay. GNTA’s overviews do not split this out by country, but Georgian Tourism in Figures 2025 counts 95.1 percent of visits from the EU, the Persian Gulf and other non-neighbouring countries as tourist trips, the ones that include at least one night, against 70.6 percent from Georgia’s neighbours. Most of those visitors fly in.
Spending is where Saudi Arabia stands out. In National Bank of Georgia figures charted in the same publication, travel revenue from Saudi Arabia came to $158 million in 2025, more than from Ukraine, Iran or Belarus, each of which sent more visitors. That is 3.4 percent of Georgia’s travel revenue from 1.4 percent of its visits.
What happened in 2026
GNTA’s half-year overview counts 26,397 visits from the Gulf between January and June 2026, 44 percent fewer than a year earlier. GNTA attributes the fall to “the ongoing conflict in the region, which has resulted in significant disruptions and restrictions to air travel”. Visits from India fell 59.7 percent, and for India, Iran and Israel alike the overview names the conflict in Iran and the flight cancellations that followed.
It was not a general slump. Georgia’s tourist trips for the half were up 0.1 percent, and visits from the EU and the United Kingdom reached a record 249,201. Georgia’s tourism reset has the wider picture.
Two points of proportion. Even in a normal year the first half is the smaller one for Gulf travel: working back from GNTA’s figures, January to June 2025 accounted for about 47,000 of that year’s 145,513 Gulf visits. And the half-year report says nothing about when the numbers recover, so neither does this piece.
What each passport needs at the border
Gulf passports are the simple case. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs list of visa-free countries includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, each with a stay of a full year.
India is not on that list, and there are two routes. The first suits Indian families who live in the Gulf. A valid visa or residence permit from any country on the ministry’s second list, which includes all six Gulf states as well as the US, the UK and the EU states, allows 90 days in any 180 without a Georgian visa, as long as it is valid on the day the border is crossed.
Without one, an Indian traveller needs a visa, and for a short stay the ministry points to Georgia’s e-visa portal. Its FAQ puts the fee at $20 plus a 2 percent service fee, and every traveller needs a separate e-visa, children included. For an Indian passport the application page adds a second mandatory step, a DuVerify application at $15 per applicant, due within 24 hours of the first. The same FAQ says it takes not less than five working days to make a decision on a visa application. The portal lists what a traveller must be able to show at the border: the passport, proof of accommodation, documents proving the purpose of the trip and sufficient funds, and travel and health insurance.
One rule covers every passport. Since 1 January 2026 the ministry’s entry rules require every tourist entering Georgia to hold health and accident insurance with cover of at least 30 000 ₾ for the whole stay, arrival and departure days included, from a Georgian or a foreign insurer, on paper or electronic, in Georgian or English. The same rules, from a corporate booker’s side, are in what to know before a business trip to Tbilisi.
Getting there
Most of the Gulf routes land in Tbilisi. The Tbilisi airport route map lists direct flights from Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Kuwait, Bahrain, Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam, on carriers that include flydubai, Air Arabia, Qatar Airways, Jazeera Airways, Kuwait Airways, Gulf Air and flynas, and its departures board for 10 to 12 October 2026 showed flights to eight of those nine cities. The map mixes scheduled and unscheduled flights, so the airline’s own timetable for the travel dates is the one to trust.
Batumi airport’s route map lists flydubai from Dubai, flynas from Riyadh and Jeddah and Jazeera Airways from Kuwait, which suits a trip that is mostly the coast. Kutaisi airport’s destination list has no Gulf or Indian city. Where the trip actually happens decides the airport, and choosing between Tbilisi, Kutaisi and Batumi sets out how.
India is less settled. The only direct route on the airports’ own lists is IndiGo’s from New Delhi to Tbilisi, and GNTA ties India’s first-half fall to flight cancellations. IndiGo cancelled its Tbilisi flights early in 2026, when it stopped using Iranian airspace, and in February extended the cancellation to 28 March (Outlook Business); Tbilisi airport’s departures board for 26 to 28 October 2026 showed no flight to Delhi. Check IndiGo’s current schedule for the dates before building a trip around it; otherwise it is a one-stop trip, best compared on the actual dates.
Some of these flights land in the small hours. On the airport’s arrivals board for 11 October 2026, a flydubai flight from Dubai was due at 02:35, and the 337 bus into the city runs from 06:59 to 22:59, according to the airport’s bus page. At that hour the choice is a taxi or a car booked in advance, such as a fixed-fare airport transfer.
Where a chauffeur fits, and where it does not
We run four cars and have run a few hundred transfers. The V-Class seats seven guests; the S-Class and the two Maybachs, the S-Class W223 and the EQS 680, take three each. For a family group that is the honest answer: up to seven travel together in the V-Class, and a larger party needs two cars.
From the airport the fare is fixed: 350 ₾ in the V-Class, 500 ₾ in the S-Class and 750 ₾ in either Maybach, confirmed in writing before the car is dispatched. A couple with hand luggage landing mid-afternoon does not need it, and the 1 ₾ bus is a perfectly good answer. A family of six with a week’s luggage landing at 02:35 is a different case, and what each way into the city costs sets out the options fare by fare.
Days out are priced by the day: eight to nine hours with one driver, door to door, at 1 350 ₾ in the V-Class, 1 500 ₾ in the S-Class and 2 500 ₾ in either Maybach. A trip that takes the whole day there and back, such as Kazbegi, is priced at the day rate, and day trips from Tbilisi covers the usual routes. Routes too long for one day, Mestia among them, are quoted as multi-day bookings, in writing, in advance.
SOIT is not a tour company and does not provide guides. A guide for a cellar visit or a day in the old town is a separate booking.
Send the flight number, the number of guests and the hotel’s name and street address to booking@soitblack.com, and the fare comes back in writing before any car is dispatched.