Press releases

MIR, 8 December (BelTA) – Around 50,000 tourists have visited Grodno and the Augustow Canal since the launch of the visa-free program in Belarus, Alexander Versotsky, Head of the Main Office for Ideology, Culture, and Youth Affairs of the Grodno Oblast Executive Committee, said at the offsite session of the Permanent Commission of International Affairs of the House of Representatives in Mir on 8 December, BelTA informs.

According to the official, 48,020 tourists from 66 countries have visited Grodno District since the adoption of Decree No.318 on the introduction of visa-free entry for foreign tourists. Most of them were Lithuanian and Latvian citizens.

The document helped create 418 jobs, including some 50 ones in the field of culture, Alexander Versotsky said. Foreign visitors consumed at least $10 million worth of goods and services.

The work is underway to open new tourist attractions, for instance, museums of pisanka (traditional Easter egg) and rushnik (traditional ritual cloth). Both the government and private business are opening new museums, Alexander Versotsky added.

He also noted that the country makes additional information products for tourists, for example, a calendar of momentous events for 2016. A similar calendar for 2017 has been prepared in Polish and English.

Decree No.318 on the introduction of visa-free entry for foreign tourists in the special tourism and recreation park Augustow Canal came into force on 26 October 2016. The document envisages a five-day visa-free entry to the park and adjacent population centers of Grodno District and Grodno.