95% of vouchers for the upcoming summer have been booked at a sanatorium in the Vitebsk region

This was reported by Elena Andreykova, head of the representative office of the Vitebsk Regional Department of the Republican Center for Health Improvement and Sanatorium-Resort Treatment of the Population. She also spoke about the current situation on the sanatorium-resort services market of the Vitebsk region.

In the first quarter of 2015, almost 10.5 thousand people were treated in sanatoriums, as reported by Elena Borisovna, which is almost a thousand less than in the same period last year. This decline was mainly due to foreign citizens who did not use the services of the Dvina health resorts this time. As a rule, the majority of foreign visitors (more than 90%) were tourists from CIS countries, which explains the sharp drop in the volume of services provided by domestic sanatoriums. On the one hand, the increase in the cost of services due to the rising prices of food products and energy carriers, and on the other hand, the decrease in the purchasing power of Russians. In addition, the cost of vouchers to sanatoriums in the Russian Federation decreased, and the health improvement business in Crimea began to actively develop. All this together affected the work of our health resorts, their occupancy, and the attraction of foreign investment.

For the upcoming summer, 95% of vouchers have been booked in the region's sanatoriums. About 55% of future guests are Belarusians, and the rest are foreign citizens. The average cost of a voucher for our compatriots for the summer period is 6 – 6.5 million for 14 days.

Given today's realities, the sanatoriums of the Vitebsk region must actively continue their work to attract new visitors, both foreign and Belarusian, expand the range and improve the quality of services provided, improve living conditions, and develop infrastructure. For example, the children's sanatorium "Rosinka" of the branch of OJSC "Belagrozdrawnitsa" is the only one in the region that has organized a special department for parents and children, and has introduced additional residential premises for these purposes. In the children's rehabilitation and health center "Zhemchuzhina" of Lepel district, a project was completed last year to commission a well for mineral water extraction with connection to the medical building and the construction of a drinking hall. Also, video surveillance cameras have been installed on the territory of the center to ensure the safety of children. In the sanatorium "Zhelezhnodorozhnik" , the reconstruction of the dormitory building and the construction of a new medical building with a swimming pool are to be completed in May-June.

Over the past two years, the bed capacity of the region's sanatoriums has increased by 176 beds. According to the results of 2014, all sanatorium-resort and health organizations in the region are loaded at 78.1%. Great hopes are placed today on competent marketing and promotion of sanatorium services as one of the important areas of domestic tourism to attract guests to the Vitebsk region, so that they come to the northern region for recreation and health, as well as for high-quality goods from local producers. By the way, the region ranks second in the country after the Minsk region in terms of the number of sanatorium-resort and health organizations.

Natalia Ryzhkova, "Vitebskiye vesti"