Tourists Pour Into Georgia as Two-Year Political Standoff Grinds On

Monday, October 26, marks two years since the contested parliamentary elections that set off Georgia's political crisis, and the weekly protest march through Tbilisi shows no sign of stopping. Demonstrators gather each Saturday at Avlabari Square in the Armenian quarter, cross the Bridge of Love to Freedom Square and continue to parliament, where they chant slogans against Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze's government.

The protests began two days after the October 26, 2024 vote and peaked on November 28, when the government said it would not place the opening of EU accession negotiations on its agenda before the end of 2028. Georgia received EU candidate status in 2023. Georgian Dream, the party in power since 2012, has faced accusations of growing authoritarianism and of steering the country closer to Moscow.

Tourism has moved the other way. The Georgian National Tourism Administration reported more than 5.5 million international tourist visits in 2025, an 8.4% increase from 2024 and roughly 10 times the roughly 560,000 visits recorded 20 years ago. Visitors arrive from Europe, the Middle East and Russia.

Russia's role cuts both ways. After its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, tens of thousands of Russian citizens moved to Georgia, opened businesses and bought homes, pushing property prices. Georgia's population remains under 4 million, and many residents remember the early 1990s wars in South Ossetia and Abkhazia and the August 2008 conflict with Moscow, which still controls Abkhazia and South Ossetia, together about 20% of Georgian territory.

The two countries severed diplomatic ties after 2008, yet trade, tourism, remittances, Russian capital and energy imports continue to support Tbilisi's economy. GDP grew 7.5% in 2025, the fifth straight year of expansion, alongside unemployment, low wages, poverty and depopulation in rural areas.

Georgian Dream was founded in 2012 by Bidzina Ivanishvili, who served as prime minister from 2012 to 2013 and built his fortune in Russia in the 1990s after the Soviet collapse. The billionaire in his 70s also funded the renovation of the Rustaveli theatre in Tbilisi about 20 years ago.

Relations with Brussels have cooled. The EU has criticized the Georgian government's record on rule of law and political repression. Protests have continued each Saturday as the two-year mark approaches.

Georgia sits between Russia and Turkey, alongside Armenia and Azerbaijan, and its territory includes mountain villages along the Georgian Military Road, Orthodox churches, wine regions with a history spanning millennia and the Black Sea port of Batumi. The country emerged from the Soviet Union in 1991 and is roughly the size of Ireland.

No elections or EU negotiation sessions are scheduled in the source material. The Saturday marches continue in Tbilisi, and the government's position on EU talks remains unchanged through the end of 2028.