Premium-class hotels now more popular with foreign tourists in Belarus

Foreign tourists now choose premium-class hotels in Belarus more often, Aleksei Strelchenko, an assistant to the director general of the Hotel Holding Company of the Belarusian President Property Directorate, told a press conference, BelTA has learned.

"The first quarter of 2022 was not optimistic for the hotel business. Yet, things improved eventually. First of all, it was thanks to the unprecedented growth in the influx of Russian tourists to Belarus. So, if we consider hotels by segment, then, for example, the five-star hotel President Hotel surpassed the results of 2019 this year in terms of average annual occupancy. This is a very good result," Aleksei Strelchenko noted.

According to him, now in general the emphasis has shifted in favor of a comfortable holiday among tourists who visit Belarus. Most have started opting for four- or five-star hotels. At the same time, the occupancy rate of economy-class hotels began to lag far behind the five-star ones.

"Of course, we must work towards the development of premium hotels, but also do not neglect three-star ones. For example, now the Belarusian tourism industry can offer Russians weekly bus excursion tours around our country. This is one of the areas of our work with the regions of the Russian Federation. I believe that these are good prospects for the development of the economy segment hotels," Aleksei Strelchenko concluded.