For several years the Belarusian authorities
have been trying to attract to
Belarus as
many foreign tourists as possible. “The National Programme of the Development
of Tourism for 2008-2010” was adopted for the country and according to this
document it is envisaged to pay more attention to human resource policy in the
area of tourism, the marketing of tourist services and opening Belarusian
representation offices abroad. One of the principal goals is to develop the
tourist infrastructure of the country.5 million or 105
thousand?
The main achievement so far
is that the Ministry of Sport and Tourism started designating as a ‘tourist’
anyone who crossed the border. Last year, the Minister of Sport and Tourism
Aleksandr Grigorov reported over 5 million foreign visitors. In the meantime
the Ministry of Statistics and Analysis made their calculations in the
old-fashion way, i.e. only those who came to the country by purchasing tours
(so-called ‘organised’ tourism) and the figure they obtained was slightly over
105 thousand tourists.
The official statistics of
the Ministry of Statistics and Analysis of Belarus show that in 2007 there were
105 thousand ‘organised’ tourists coming from abroad, which is by 18% more than
in 2006.
Foreigners are attracted by Belarusian forests and woods
The most frequent visitors
to
Belarus are Lithuanians, there were about
10,000 of them; 7.8 thousand tourists came from
Germany; 5.3 thousand from the
USA and 4.4 thousand from the
UK. The number of ‘organised’ tourists
from
Belgium increased significantly – 1800
people (6 times more). There were 605 visitors from
Finland, 1100 from
Australia and 4300 from each of
Estonia and
Israel.
A lot of Germans transit
through
Belarus when going to
Russia. Foreigners are frequently
attracted by the Belarusian forests and woods – hunters from
Germany,
Italy and
France come here to hunt. They purchase
licenses to hunt bison, wild boar, deer, moose, roe deer and birds. There are
eco-tourists as well: they come to visit Belavezhskaya Pushcha and
Pripiat
National Park for bird and animal watching.
Russians occupied Belarusian recuperation facilities
The most frequent visitors
from the CIS countries are Russians – almost 40,000 of them, others include
Ukrainians and Kazakhs. They are attracted by the Belarusian recuperation
facilities. Abroad, as well as in
Russia, the cost of treatment in
recuperation facilities is significantly higher, while the price and quality
ratio in Belarusian resorts is quite acceptable. For example, lodging in a
single luxurious room, 4 meals a day and medical treatment in a rather
prestigious recuperation centre “Sosny” by the
lake
Naroch would cost around 40 USD per day and
in the recuperation centre “Priozerny” – 30 USD per day.
Only 0.05% of the tourism potential of the country is being
used
The Deputy Minister of
Economy Andrey Tur, thinks that entry tourism in
Belarus is not developing actively enough.
He made such statement at the first specialized conference “Agro and ecotourism
in
Belarus: the state and development
perspectives”. The main reasons, restricting the development of entry tourism,
are poor development of tourist infrastructure, low quality of services as well
as inadequate marketing of national tourism opportunities to external markets.
Last year the income from the entry tourism industry constituted slightly over
40 million US dollars (which is 15 million more compared with 2006).
In general, the possible
income from the tourism industry in
Belarus could be billions of US dollars
annually according to an assessment made by international experts. However only
0.05% of the entire tourism potential of the country is being used today,
thinks the Deputy Minister of Economy Andrey Tur.
In the meantime, the
tourism industry contributes only 0.1 % to the national GDP. The import-export
ratio of tourism services is maintained at the negative level. What are the
barriers for development of entry tourism? These include expensive visa costs,
lack of quality chain hotels and low quality of services, far from
internationally accepted standards. There are very few tour-operators promoting
tours to
Belarus.
Belarusian tourists prefer
Turkey and
Egypt
Last year 517 thousand
Belarusians visited foreign countries. Traditionally, the most popular
destination in the CIS countries is
Ukraine (about 66% of the total number of
the ‘organised’ tourists, i.e. almost 155,000). Since Soviet times the
Crimea remains the most popular destination
for summer vacations. 80 thousand tourists visited
Russia.
The most popular non-CIS
foreign country for Belarusians is
Turkey, last year almost 45 thousand
Belarusians spent their summer vacations there at the shores of
Mediterranean and Greek seas.
Turkey’s attraction is in simple visa
procedures (a visa could be obtained in the airport and costs 20 USD),
relatively high quality of services, warm sea, well organized beaches and
“all-inclusive” system. Moreover,
Turkey is still attached to the US dollar
therefore the cost of vacations is not a lot higher than the
Crimea or
Sochi.
Turkey is followed by
Egypt (about 25,000 Belarusians went for
vacations there last year),
Lithuania,
Latvia,
Greece,
United Arab Emirates,
Spain and
Montenegro.
The real figure of
Belarusians going abroad for vacations or trips is a lot higher. Many travel
via
Moscow or Kyiv due to the fact that the
cost of tours to
Turkey and
Egypt is lower there (the cost is down
cut by the airfare due to large airbuses going to these destinations). This is
why
Belarus has to promote its popularity and
opportunities in the tourism industry. It is a strategic task requiring
resolving several issues.
By Ludmila Korsak
info@eurobelarus.info
