Germans are not sure of our roads, British are advised against flying Belavia, and it’s too expensive for Russians in Belarus now.
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According to the National Statistics Committee, 137.4 thousands of tourists visited Belarus last year. This is 0.5% more than in 2013. The vast majority of tourists are from Russia.
For the citizens of Western Europe, apparently, Belarus remains a “black hole”. Belsat correspondent checked websites of the Foreign Ministries of some European countries to find out how they imagine our country to be.
Diplomats to tourists: do not fly Belavia
The German Foreign Ministry does not recommend driving a car at night “due to partly bad roads”. “The attitude in hospitals is often not to German standards, but first aid is provided,” says the site about the Belarusian healthcare. German diplomats not recommended drinking tap water. And neither do the French.
The French Foreign Ministry, citing police, claims that you should be careful about your expensive things in the Belarusian regional centers and in the capital. It says a few words about the quality of fuel at the Belarusian gas stations:
“Fuel supplies are satisfactory, except unleaded gasoline, which is not distributed outside the capital. Quality of the diesel varies.”
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British Foreign Office wrote that in our country tourists from the UK could face “major terrorist threat” with “chaotic attacks”, including in places visited by foreigners.
Describing the political situation, the British diplomats urge their compatriots to be vigilant and avoid all demonstrations and rallies that were violently dispersed in the past.
Interestingly, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also urges to avoid taking pictures of the administrative buildings, military installations and the people in the uniform – it may even result in a fine. Apparently, the Belarusian tourists who photographed the library and registry office in Iuye and later were questioned by the police had noone to warn them.
“Local airlines may fail to perform appropriate maintenance procedures. For your safety fly international flights, not originally from the former Soviet Union,” noted the British Foreign Office.
Since the start of the year, number of Russians has fallen 10 times
Number of visitors to our country does not impress.
“It may be a satisfactory number of guests for a country that has built so many hotels and now does not know what to do with them. The country, which we have today, is not well-developed in terms of tourism: when the tourist arrives in a small town, they cannot even have something to eat there. And then there’s the new circumstances: you cannot take pictures,” said the chief editor of Turism i Otdykh Liliya Kobzik.
Last year we had 113,200 Russians visiting our country. Because of the economic problems they faced, it became expensive for them to go on holiday to Belarus. Liliya Kobzik offered statistics from some travel agencies: previously, Russian groups accounted for 30-40 applications in the first months of the year, this year they had 10 times less.
They are not in a hurry to visit us, but we are the first ones in Vilnius
According to the data from the National Statistics Committee, 76,151 foreigners visited Minsk last year.
Thanks to the World Hockey Championship, we had 7,000 more visitors than in 2013.
The neighboring capital of Vilnius is a successful example of how to attract as many visitors as possible. Although the number of tourists there is calculated differently: it is determined not by the number of organized groups brought by the travel agencies but by the number of overnight stays of the foreign visitors. At the Vilnius Tourist Information Centre, Belsat was told that Belarusians spent night there more often than others – 134,219 times. This is 13.9% more than the year before. Russsians are in the second place wuth 109,143 nights. Germans are in the third, British on the sixth. They could have gone to Belarus, but perhaps they were intimidated by the tips from their Foreign Ministries.
Dzmitry Kustouski, belsat.eu/en/
