Turkish seashore is dearer to us

Last year, over 660,000 Belarusians travelled abroad for holidays, with most heading to the coast, since we are one of the few European countries to lack our own shoreline. Countries not requiring visas and which are accessible by charter flight are among the most popular destinations. This year, routes were busy not only from Minsk, but from regional centres.

Until last year, Ukraine was the most visited destination, with 175,000 Belarusians travelling in 2013 (against only 5,600 in 2014). Now, only cheap bus tours to the Odessa Region are in demand, costing about $200 for 10 days.

The countries currently most visited by Belarusian tourists include Turkey, Bulgaria, Egypt, Poland, Russia, Greece, Lithuania, Spain, Italy and the Czech Republic. These account for 82.7 percent of our holidaymakers. Poland is ranked fourth for inexpensive shopping trips, rather than as a country for holidaymaking.

Ever more tourists are heading to Thailand, Slovakia and Montenegro while Belarusians rarely now go to Tunisia, which was very popular until recently.