Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 25 September (BelTA) – Several possible brands of Belarus will be offered to the general public by the end of 2017, BelTA learned from Belarus' Deputy Sports and Tourism Minister Mikhail Portnoi.

"Several variants of the brand of Belarus will be offered to the public discussion by the end of 2017," Mikhail Portnoi said.

He stressed that Belarus needs a brand. "The bad experience of creating a Minsk city brand shows that we need to take a balanced approach to this matter and to involve the public to ensure that the work is transparent and there are no corruption elements," Mikhail Portnoi noted.

He also said that the goal of the Belarusian tourism is to contribute to the national economy. "We performed the government’s instructions in 2016. We had to earn $154 million and we earned a lot more. The trend appears to have continued in 2017 thanks to the consolidated work," the deputy sports and tourism minister stated.

Mikhail Portnoi noted that the launch of the five-day visa-free entry for the citizens of 80 states arriving to Belarus via Minsk National Airport is an important step in the legislative work. “We expected the information campaign which we ran together with our Belarusian diplomatic missions abroad to result in a 15-20% increase in passenger traffic via the airport over six months. It actually increased by 27% as against the same period last year," he said.