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(Interpressnews.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–The number of visitors entering Georgia in March grew by 16.7 percent, compared to same period last year, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

According to the new monthly report of MIA the number of visitors in March was 450,875.

MIA lists the number of visitors in three categories; tourists, transit or other purposes.

For a visitor to be categorized as a tourists, he or she has to spend more than 24 hours in Georgia. The number of such visitors in March 2016 was 170,281 – 24.8 percent more than last year.

The number of visitors who used Georgia as a transit country was 82,602 – 6.3 percent less than last year.

When it comes to the number of people visiting for other reasons, there were 197,985 of them in March – 22.5 percent more than last year.

The highest number of visitors in March came from Azerbaijan, Turkey, Armenia, Russia, Ukraine and Iran.

Dimitri Kumsishvili, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, said at a press conference on Monday that according to preliminary figures, the income from tourism in March was more than 38 million laris. He said the number of visitors in the first three months of 2016 was 1,134,436 – a 14.7 percent increase from last year.

In 2015 the total number of visitors was 5.9 million, and the National Bank indicated that the income from tourism in 2015 was more than 1.9 billion; 148 million more than in 2014, according to Kumsishvili .