Expert: Russia Remains Belarus’ Most Important Partner in Tourism Industry

“Russia still remains our most relevant and important partner. However, in the long run, I think Polish market will be able to compete. Even now, we are observing a tremendous increase in interest on the part of Poland. The capacity of the source market is 10 million 600 thousand people with an average bill of 704-720 euros,” said Fillip Guly.

He also noted that the Baltic countries (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia), the countries of Scandinavia, North America (the USA, Canada) show interest in Belarusian tourism products as well.

Fillip Guly noted that the number of tourists coming to Belarus started to grow after the 2014 World Hockey Championship. It was then that the country began to develop infrastructure, roadside and hospitality services, and visa waiver programme was launched. Belarus became even more popular after the II European Games. Moreover, we have great hopes for the upcoming hockey competition as a way to generate tourist flow.

“The forthcoming bright event, 2021 World Hockey Championship, is supposed to help us promote the entire classic tourism product under the flag, the core of the future championship. It is a unique opportunity to popularize the Belarusian product. For instance, on February 27th-28th, we, together with the Latvian association Alta, are going to plan all our work in marketing, promotion, and booking pattern of tour packages to the 2021 World Hockey Championship,” emphasized Fillip Guly.

As for collaboration with China, at the moment tourist programmes are suspended because of coronavirus. The large-scale projects that were planned for the year 2020 will be moved back. The exact dates will become known after February 10th.