MINSK, 3 March (BelTA) – In 2010 Belarus will be represented at six international travel exhibitions, BelTA learnt from Valery Boldyrev, Head of the Marketing and Publishing Department of the National Tourism Agency. In 2009 Belarus took part in three international travel exhibitions. This year the Belarusian travel industry has been already represented at the IMTM (Tel-Aviv) and Vivattour (Vilnius) exhibitions. The Belarusian booth will be also showcased at the ATM exhibition in Dubai, the WTM exhibition in London, and the MITF and Inturmarket exhibitions in Moscow. Belarus has decided to partake in exhibitions in those countries, the residents of which are interested in visiting Belarus, according to Valery Boldyrev. “In particular, a lot of Israeli citizens are immigrants from Belarus, who speak Russian fluently. The same situation is in Lithuania. But for the high visa cost we would increase the influx of Lithuanian tourists to Belarus,” Valery Boldyrev said. At the same time, most of tourists that come to Belarus are from Russia. This year Belarus will offer the Russians health resort treatment and various sightseeing tours. Belarus will take part in the ATM exhibition in Dubai for the first time. “It is a new and promising market for us: taking into account the specific features of local tourists (high financial solvency and interest in Belarusian nature) and the direct flight between Minsk and Abu-Dhabi, we are looking forward to achieving good results,” said Valery Boldyrev. And the Belarusian booth has been represented at the WTM exhibition in London on numerous occasions already. This year the National Tourism Agency of Belarus intends to intensify the contacts with British travel companies.

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