Updated at 13:21,07-10-2024

How Visa-Free Foreigners Increased Minsk Budget By 35%

BelTA / BelarusFeed

How Visa-Free Foreigners Increased Minsk Budget By 35%
The revenues from tourist services to the budget of Minsk increased by 35% after the introduction of Belarus visa-free regime in January last year.

No wonder Minsk is one of the cheapest European cities!

“The introduction of a visa-free regime for five days for citizens of eighty states has already borne fruit.

More than eighty thousand foreign citizens, primarily from Western Europe, visited Belarus,”

There is 35% increase in revenues to the budget from tourism, hotel services, health services, recreation and so on, “ Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Make said.

According to the minister, the introduction of visa-free travel stimulated foreigners to visit such regions as the Augustow Canal and Belovezhskaya Pushcha.

At the same time, Vladimir Makei acknowledged some violations of the visa-free regime but called them insignificant.

“I think it is worth it all and the decision to introduce a visa-free regime was absolutely justified and weighed.

Visa-free tourism positively affects the situation in the country, this is why we should not stop at what we have achieved,” the minister concluded.

Nonetheless, the officials plan to ​​further simplify the visa-free regime, next steps will be discussed at a meeting with President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko this month.

Recall that starting 1 January the visa-free travel time for foreign citizens was expanded up to ten days in several areas of Brest Oblast and Grodno Oblast.

Moreover, there is a possibility that foreigners may be allowed to stay in Belarus without visas for 90 days, Vladimir Makei said in an interview a month ago.

BelarusFeed jointly with TUT.BY tried to answer the most puzzling questions about the visa-free enter, stay and travel in these regions.