The tourist potential of the Braslav district needs to be actively developed – Natalia Kochanova

According to the Head of the President's Administration, Belarus currently earns little from tourism due to insufficient awareness of our country abroad. "At the same time, consider the II European Games: what wonderful feedback was received from everyone who visited. Another unique event is the upcoming USA-Europe athletics match. The strongest teams of athletes will come to us. This is largely due to the peace and order in Belarus. And meanwhile, this is money and promotion of the country's image!" - noted Natalya Kochanova. In her opinion, the Braslav district, with its uniquely beautiful nature, also has enormous potential in the tourism sector. "This is one of the key growth points of the district, around which a serious development plan for other areas should be built: develop modern comfortable infrastructure with catering facilities, leisure, rural ecotourism, improve the export of medical services, attract investors. You have the opportunity to earn, to bring profit to the district, the region, the entire country," - is convinced Natalya Kochanova.

The Head of the President's Administration paid special attention to the need to establish broad dissemination of information about the opportunities and tourist offers of the Braslav region through various sources and interested structures, including foreign ones.

As a positive example, she cited the work of the organizers of the Viva Braslav festival. "Information inviting people to this festival was heard everywhere six months in advance," - noted Natalya Kochanova. The result is logical: this year, the sports and music open-air was attended by 26,000 people. The same number of tourists visited hotels, health resorts, and agro-ecotourism estates in the district throughout 2018.

There are 300 of the latter in Braslav district, which is half of all agro-ecotourism estates in Vitebsk region. And according to Natalia Kochanova, there should be more of them here. She also gave the highest rating to the project implemented by the district executive committee with LLC "Chinese-European Culture "Jinren" for promoting information about the Braslav district in China. At the same time, the following fact is indicative of the lack of information within Belarus about the district's opportunities. Several years ago, to attract investors, by order of the head of state, the allocation of 100 land plots in the district for the placement of tourism facilities, including agro-ecotourism, was approved. Currently, only five of them have been in demand. "There is something to work on. The most important thing is to see the goal to strive for," emphasized Natalia Kochanova.

Along with this, the Head of the Presidential Administration of Belarus focused on the need to improve all areas: "The economy is the basis of everything: if it exists, there will be opportunities to solve other tasks facing you regarding social facilities, construction, and other areas."

BELTA.