Business news

4 Mar 2019

Belarus tourism inflow up by 30% in 2018

MINSK, 4 March (BelTA) – Belarus welcomed a total of 365,500 visitors in 2018 (282,700 in 2017), BelTA learned from the Belarusian Statistics Committee.

Belarus' most valuable tourism source market was Russia (57%). Others included Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, Ukraine, Germany, China, Spain, Estonia, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Israel. Their average period of stay in Belarus was 5 days.

There were 850,700 outbound visits in 2018. The Belarusians visited the CIS member states (20%), the EU (28%) and other countries 52%. The most popular destinations were Egypt, Turkey, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Russia, Spain, Poland, Greece, Georgia, Montenegro, Czech Republic, Lithuania and Italy (88.1%).

Inbound tourism was on the rise. In 2018, the number of tourists traveling inside the country totaled 65,200 people. The number of excursionists reached 942,600 people.

In 2018, a total of 2,007,300 people stayed in hotels and other accommodation facilities. Belarusians accounted for 48% of them, foreigners made up 52%, including 35% from the CIS.

Spa resorts and other special-purpose facilities accommodated 840,300 people in 2018. Foreigners made up 229,000 of them, or 27% of the total number.

According to the Taxes and Duties Ministry, in late 2018 there were 2,054 rural tourism estates in Belarus. The number of tourists opting for this type of holidaymaking made up 422,300, with Belarusians accounting for 90% of them.

As of late 2018, some 1,482 organizations provided tourism services in Belarus.