About 1 mln foreign tourists visit Belarus visa-free

MOSCOW. Feb 11 (Interfax) - About 1 million tourists from the European Union have visited Belarus visa-free, Board Chairman of Belarus' Republican Union of Tourism Industry Filipp Gulyi said.

"The Republic of Belarus still sees a growth in European tourist arrivals. After all, the visa-free system in effect since July brings results. The latest numbers we have seen are around a million," Gulyi said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Over 80% of foreign tourists come from Russia, he said.

As reported earlier, visa-free trips to Belarus are most popular with its EU neighbors - Lithuania, Latvia and Poland, as well as Germany, Estonia, Italy, France and the UK.

Belarus introduced a visa-free system for citizens of Lithuania, Latvia and Poland in 2022, and included another 35 European countries in the project in 2024. Belarus extended the visa-free system for Europeans for one year at the end of 2024.

The number of business travelers from Russia is also growing in Belarus, Gulyi said.

"We would like to note a transformation of consumer criteria, a change in what travelers come to Belarus for over the year. First of all, we observe a significant increase in business travelers from Russia. Corporate events are held in Minsk and other cities of the country. The length of business trips is also growing," he said.

Health resorts and sightseeing tours are traditionally popular, Gulyi said.

"What is more, there is a rather significant growth in sightseeing tours. Perhaps, the reason is that hotels have a limited number of rooms, while the restrictions are not so tight in sightseeing tours, and we can see a growth," he said.

According to the Republican Union of Tourism Industry, about 4.8 million Russian travelers, including 233,000 organized tourists, visited Belarus in 2023. Presumably, tourist arrivals from Russia grew 15% in 2024.