These brand new tourist attractions are being created in the scope of the tourism development program for 2006–2010. Tourist villages are different from the more of less usual agro-manors (another type of tourist attraction), as they are located outside large towns and have a richer infrastructure, a wider range of services and larger scale. This year the joint Belarusian-German company “Nadezhda XXI Century” plans to build a tourist village for 70–100 in the Vileika District. In 2006 the new tourist village in the Borisov District will be opened for all lovers of village recreation. This site has a restaurant that can seat 40 people, a sauna and a comfortable beach.
As for sightseeing, it is planned to focus on the events that took place during the war with Napoleon in 1812 in the vicinity of the village Studenka in the Brilevskoe field.
Next year tourist villages will appear in the Soligorsk, Minsk and Smolevichi Districts. Their business plans will soon be completed. It is a tough task indeed, as all villages are to have peculiar features. At the same time, they all aim to intensify regional development by creating new jobs for villagers, support crafts and national cultural traditions. This sort of tourism is in fact a good way to implement the village restoration program.
Agricultural and ecological tourism, or agro-eco-tourism, has been developing boisterously in the Minsk Region over the past two years. At present there are over 30 manors, and two more are to appear here soon.
The Minsk Region administration established a special public council to develop agro-eco-tourism. The council includes owners of manors, directors of travel agencies and tour operators, heads of agricultural companies, community leaders and experts of the Belarus support program by the German federal government.
