Business news

GOMEL, 5 December (BelTA) – Gomel Oblast’s export of tourist services surged by 27% in January-November 2017 as against the same period of last year, BelTA learned from Denis Yezersky, the head of the sport and tourism department at the Gomel Oblast Executive Committee.

In January-November 2017, according to the preliminary results, the tourism services export amounted to $11.7 million. Last year the region's tourism industry earned $9.2 million in the same period. All in all, Gomel Oblast made $11.385 million on organized reception of foreign guests. The target was $11.2 million.

Denis Yezersky noted that the number of foreign visitors coming to Gomel Oblast has been continuously increasing. The five-day visa-free program has contributed to this. Wellness and medical tourism is the most attractive for foreign tourists. The region has hosted medical tourists from more than 70 countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and also Israel, Cyprus, Italy, Yemen, Germany, and other countries.

Industrial, rural-ecological tourism and religious tourism is also growing in popularity, Denis Yezersky noted.

According to him, military-historical tourism is becoming trendy: people from all over the world come to Gomel Oblast to visit memorials, military and regional museums. “On the eve of the New Year holidays, health farms and agro-eco tourism facilities offer foreign tourists weekend tours, corporate events, sightseeing tours around the region and the country,” Denis Yezersky noted.

Gomel Oblast’s landmarks include the Gomel Palace and Park ensemble, Turov sights, the National Park Pripyatsky, a memorial museum on the site of the former Nazi concentration camp and the Kozel-Poklevskikh palace in the village of Krasny Bereg in Zhlobin District.