Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 6 April (BelTA) – The number of Russian tourists to Belarus should increase many times, head of the Russian Federal Agency for Tourism (Rostourism) Oleg Safonov told media at the international tourism fair Leisure 2016 on 6 April, BelTA has learned.

Rostourism and the Belarusian Sport and Tourism Ministry signed an agreement on cooperation on 6 April. The document represents an action plan to increase tourist flows between the two countries. According to Oleg Safonov, the main areas of cooperation will be resort recuperation, military heritage tourism and camping. “We are interested in the services of the Belarusian resorts. Belarusian resorts provide high-quality services and Russian citizens should make the maximum use of them. As for the military heritage tourism, here we need a common guide for routes in Belarus and Russia. As far as the camping is concerned, we need to develop infrastructure in order to attract campers from Europe,” he added.

According to Rostourism, nearly 240,000 Russian tourists come to Belarus through travel agencies. “We believe this number is insufficient and may be increased many times. I believe we should do it,” Oleg Safonov noted.

The Rostourism head stressed that for Russian tourists it is interesting and comfortable to visit Belarus. “We need to actively promote the Belarusian tourism product in the Russian Federation. Within the framework of the action plan we signed today we will create exclusively favorable conditions for Belarus’ travel business in order to advance its tourism product to Russia,” he said.

“We are interested in the development of domestic travel and inbound tourism that will work on the economy of both Belarus and Russia,” Oleg Safonov said.