Recreation Activities and Tourism

According to the 2016 data, the share of tourism in the country's GDP reached 2.2% (1.8% in 2014). In 2016, the gross value added of tourism amounted to Br2.1 billion, which is a 47% increase over 2014.

The number of foreign citizens who visited the Republic of Belarus in 2019 reached 11.8 million (up 2.9% over 2018). The number of foreigners who bought a vacation package to Belarus amounted to 405,500 (up 10.9%).

Belarus is willing to create the most comfortable conditions for tourists.

Since 2017, the visa-free regime has been successfully in place. On 27 July 2018, the period of visa-free stay for foreign citizens who arrived in the Republic of Belarus via Minsk National Airport was extended to 30 days.

In 2019, 151,000 foreigners (up 40% compared to 2018) took advantage of this opportunity to visit the country.

An important step towards further improvement of the visa-free regime was the merger of separate visa-free tourist and recreational zones of Brest and Grodno into one visa-free zone Brest-Grodno on 10 November 2019.

Medical tourism is becoming more and more popular among foreign citizens. In 2019 alone 165,000 foreigners from 136 countries received medical treatment in Belarus. Export of medical services in 2019 amounted to $47.6 million.

Belarus has numerous places for ecotourism that are carefully preserved and developed: Narochansky National Park, Pripyatsky National Park, Braslav Lakes National Park, Belovezhskaya Pushcha National Park, Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve and others. The country has more than 320 natural monuments and almost 100 reserves of national significance, as well as more than 580 natural monuments and more than 280 reserves of local significance. In total, there are almost 1,300 protected natural territories in the country.