More than 900 Russian tourists spent the New Year and Christmas holidays in Vitebsk
According to Elena Podnebesnova, head of the inbound tourism department at the Ilva travel agency, the largest number of guests were from Moscow and St. Petersburg, but groups from other cities, including Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, and Perm, also visited the Vitebsk region.
Traditionally, the routes included attractions of the regional center, visits to the Marc Chagall Museum, the Art Museum, the Local History Museum, and the estate of Ilya Repin, where an interesting animation program was developed for tourists, allowing them to learn about Belarusian folklore and folk holiday traditions. To recreate the picture of past years when the artist lived in "Zdravnevo," museum staff decorated the Christmas tree with toys from the late 19th century.
The stay program also included a trip to ancient Polotsk, where guests were welcomed at the historical and cultural reserve. At Polotsk State University, they learned about one of Europe's oldest educational institutions – the Jesuit collegium, and saw the "Mechanical Head" and other ingenious inventions of the famous scientist Gabriel Gruber, who worked there in the late 18th century.
– Some tourists prefer to celebrate New Year's Eve in Vitebsk restaurants and speak highly of both Belarusian cuisine and the festive program. This year, compared to last year, the number of such people has quadrupled, – notes Elena Gennadievna, adding that the number of guests could have been higher, but unfortunately, the flow of visitors is limited by the capacity of Vitebsk hotels.
"Ilva" is the leader among tour operators engaged in inbound tourism, and it was in this nomination that it won the republican competition last year. In addition, it was recognized as the best entrepreneur in the country in the field of tourism services. Currently, as Elena Podnebesnova said, the focus is on attracting tourists from distant regions of Russia. In particular, the company's director Larisa Petrovskaya plans to travel to a workshop in Siberia and the Urals in the near future.