Now it’s necessary to think how to ensure that new hotel rooms don’t remain empty

By Uliana Bushui

The 2014 IIHF World Championship, hosted in Minsk earlier this year, showed that we can and are able to welcome guests. Therefore, it’s no surprise that city authorities have put forward an ambitious task to increase the inflow of tourists to the capital from 440,000 to 750,000 within two years.

On the eve of the hockey tournament, 14 new hotels were built in the city, doubling hotel infrastructure since 2012, and currently offers 43 hotels, capable of accommodating almost 10,000 people. This is a serious infrastructure growth for Minsk, and now it’s necessary to think how to ensure that these hotel rooms don’t remain empty.

“Undoubtedly, such large-scale growth on the hotel service market requires a corresponding growth of tourist inflow to the city. In order to ensure the profitability of this business, as it was between 2008 and 2013, it’s vital to expand tourist growth in Minsk within the next two years to 750,000 annually,” said Andrey Novikov, who heads the Household and Hotel Services Department at the Minsk City Executive Committee.

At present, city authorities are developing a range of definite measures aiming at increasing tourist inflow. There are plans to consider an opportunity to simplify visa procedures. There are also proposals to set up optimum prices for hotel accommodation, while ensuring the level of their services is in line with star classification, and expanding additional services provided by hotel organisations. Moreover, it’s necessary to activate actions aimed at promoting the tourist market of Minsk and of the whole Belarus abroad.

Right now, another 20 projects in this area are currently being implemented. When they are put into effect, the number of hotel places in the Belarusian capital will increase to 14,000.