Winners of the republican competition "Best Agro-Estate of 2010" have been named

April 15, Minsk /Sergey Kulyagin - BELTA/. The awarding ceremony for the winners of the republican competition "Best Agro-Estate of 2010", organized by OJSC "Belagroprombank", was held today in Minsk during the international specialized conference "Agro-Ecotourism - State and Development Prospects", according to a BELTA correspondent. As noted by Sergey Chugay, Deputy Chairman of the Board of OJSC "Belagroprombank", the competition is held for the third consecutive year and has become traditional. This year, 27 agro-estates, winners of regional competitions, participated in the republican stage of the competition in five nominations. For the first time, the owners of estates that won in previous competitions were included in the jury. Over the past three weeks, prior to the conference, the jury members visited all agro-estates and made a competent decision. The Grand Prix of the competition was awarded to the rural estate "Pavlinovo" (Brest region, Baranovichi district), the owner of the estate is Elena Onipchenko, who received a winner's diploma, a symbolic sign of quality service - a glass rooster, and bonds worth Br4.5 million. In the "Hospitality" nomination, the winner was the estate "U Knyazeva v Lyubuzhe" (Mogilev district, owner - Alexander Knyazev); in the "Green Estate" nomination - "Bukoyulia Guest House" (Vitebsk region, Gluboksky district); in the "Style and Harmony" nomination - the peasant farm "Syabry i Ka" (Vitebsk region, Orshansky district, owner - Boris Shevtsov); in the "Preservation of Belarusian Traditions" nomination - the farmstead "Nikolin Ostrov" (Gomel region, Svetlogorsky district, head of the farm - Vladimir Bykhovtsev). And in the "Healthy Lifestyle" nomination, the best was recognized as the farm "Usadba" (Mogilev district, owner - Igor Evaev). The winners in the five nominations were awarded commemorative diplomas, monetary rewards, and valuable prizes. The international specialized conference "Agro-Ecotourism - State and Development Prospects" is held annually with the aim of stimulating the development of one of the most relevant areas of the Belarusian tourism industry - rural tourism, inviting experts in this field from a number of countries of near and far abroad to share their experience. Representatives of state administration bodies, public associations, diplomatic missions of foreign countries, and owners of rural estates implementing agro-ecotourism projects took part in the conference as guests and speakers. The event discussed the most significant aspects of rural tourism development in Belarus and other countries. -0-