Press releases

3 Mar 2018

Minsk welcomes 98,700 organized group tourists in 2017

MINSK, 3 March (BelTA) – As many as 98,700 organized group tourists visited Minsk in 2017 versus 88,200 in 2016, BelTA learned from the city's central statistics office.

“We are talking about organized group tourists and holiday-makers who visited Belarus and bought services from Minsk organizations. Most of the guests came from Russia — 67.4% of the total number,” the source noted. Tours to Belarus were also popular among citizens of Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, China, Estonia, Germany, Israel, the UK, Iraq, Spain and Ukraine. Tourists stayed in Belarus for five days on the average.

Domestic tourism also showed an increase. In 2017, Minsk travel agencies served 23,300 tourists and 110,000 holiday-makers.

Accommodation was offered by 69 enterprises, including 51 hotels and hotel facilities. In 2017, they provided lodgings for 697,400 visitors, 76.2% of them were foreigners (63.5% of them were from the CIS countries). Moreover, some 5,300 tourists visited nine health resorts of Minsk, 13.4% of them were foreigners.

In 2017, more than 700 travel agencies operated in Minsk. As many as 713,700 organized tourists and holiday-makers enjoyed their services. Some 481,700 Belarusians traveled abroad, 13% of them went to the CIS countries and 39.9% to the European Union. The most popular destinations among Minsk residents were Turkey, Egypt, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Spain, Greece, Poland, Russia, Montenegro, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, and Italy. These countries accounted for 85.9% of all organized tourists and holiday-makers that went abroad from Minsk in 2017.