Business news

According to the source, plans have been made to set up an agroclub that will concentrate all the resources required to develop agroecotourism under one roof. The body will help consolidate efforts of travel agencies, insurance companies, and financial institutions.

In 2017 Belagroprombank will continue supporting farm tourism estates, which are intent on exporting their tourism services. “The presidential decree, which was passed in 2006, was the driver behind the massive support for farm tourism estates. Once the decree was passed, Belagroprombank started actively financing the development of this kind of tourism. So far our bank has granted support to 575 farm tourism estates out of over 2,000 estates. On the whole, I can say that owners of farm tourism estates are very disciplined borrowers,” added Valery Arkhipchuk.

The conference “Agroecotourism 2016: Green economy and creativity” has been organized by Belagroprombank, the Sports and Tourism Ministry, the Belarusian public association Country Escape, the public association Minsk Cycling Community, and the International Relations Department of the Belarusian State University. The country’s best farm tourism estate will be named during the conference.

Agroecotourism is one of the most successfully developing kinds of tourism in Belarus. As many as 2,263 farm tourism estates are registered in the country. Since 2006 their number has increased by 66 times. In 2015 the rural tourism estates sold their services to 294,300 tourists. In 2016 Belarus won the Agritourism nomination of the National Geographic Traveler Awards.