Press releases

NEW DELHI, 10 September (BelTA) – Belarus plans to announce the launch of the India Friendly program to attract Indian tourists in January 2018, Chairman of the Board of the National Union of Tourist Industry Filipp Guly told the media, BelTA has learned.

“We will launch the program India Friendly, or Loyal India, in January 2018. We are going to train support staff, bartenders, hotel personnel, tour guides, entertainers, and even drivers. We will teach them how to work properly with Indian tourists, how to communicate with them and what quality of services they prefer. This means a lot of hard work. This market sees many competitors, for instance, our neighbors in the Belarus-Russia Union State and our neighbors in the Baltic countries and Poland. There is serious competition there,” Filipp Guly said.

In his words, until recently Belarus-India cooperation in tourism had developed steadily but slowly. Today there is a chance to give it a boost and increase mutual tourist flow considerably. “We primarily aim at exporting tourism services, drawing Indian tourists. In the first place, this is possible as the tourist flow to Russia has been growing. A visit to Minsk as part of the tour Minsk-Moscow-St Petersburg is quite interesting. There have been quite a few requests in this regard. Our task now is to integrate the Belarusian product, namely several days of stay in Belarus, with the Scandinavian and East European route. Indian upper-middle-class tourists could visit our country on the way to these regions. This is our minimum target,” Filipp Guly pointed out.

He noted that the two countries are going to sign an agreement in New Delhi on 11 September. They plan to open two information tourist centers in New Delhi and Mumbai under the auspices of private Indian tour operators.”We hope this will give an impetus [to cooperation in tourism]. Belarus’ National Union of Tourist Industry has earmarked considerable funds to finance our participation in workshops and exhibitions in winter 2018/2019. We hope this will bring results,” he added.

Filipp Guly remarked that he would like Indian tourists to come to Belarus on a long vacation in outdoor spa centers in the future. “Indians visit Belarus with their families and children so that the kids get to know real European nature and get a feel of it. Meanwhile, the parents could spend time in outdoor spa centers and in our capital as well. This is our maximum target.” Filipp Guly underlined.

“As of today, India’s outbound tourism market is estimated at 23 million people. This is quite a large market yet it does not beat the Chinese one. There has been some dynamics, anyway. According to the official data, the tourist flow from India will reach 50 million people by 2021. Belarus certainly has a chance to draw these tourists. The most important thing in tourism is that a person is always interested in what he or she does not have at home. We want to see mountains, seas, or deserts. Indians and people living in warm southern regions are keen to see the classic Belarusian forest along with a good spa center and a big cultural city with entertainments. What we offer pretty much fits this description,” Fulipp Guly summarized.