Belarus has started earning more from tourism

August 26, Minsk / Andrei Asfura - BELTA /. In Belarus, the export of tourism services for the first half of this year increased by 34.8% and reached $59.1 million. This was reported to BELTA correspondent by the press secretary of the Ministry of Sports and Tourism, Vitaly Semashko. Also, in January-June, the import of tourism services grew and amounted to $17.4 million. This was primarily due to business trips of managers and specialists of Belarusian organizations to foreign countries. Thus, in the tourism sector for January-June, a positive balance of $41.7 million was formed. In addition, domestic tourism developed actively in the first half of the year. Thus, the volume of paid tourist and excursion services in the republic increased by 32.1% during this period. Despite the positive dynamics, the Ministry of Sports considers the work of the departments of physical culture, sports and tourism to inform citizens, including foreigners, about existing tourist facilities and routes in the country to be insufficient. In addition, today it is necessary to increase the number of road signs to tourist facilities, as well as to more actively develop special regional programs for tourism development. In particular, in the Vitebsk region, an action plan under the conditional name "100" was adopted. According to the plan, within a year, 100 hunting lodges, 100 recreation areas around lakes, 100 roadside service facilities, and 100 agro-tourism estates should be commissioned in the region. -0-