Belarusian and Russian achievements in tourism were covered by TV ONT host Anna Pyzh on May 18, 2024. Here is what she in particular said:
“Belarus appeared to be among the 50 most visited countries in the world. Out of two hundred, a fairly high 48th place. [...] However, in the post-Soviet space, Russia and Belarus are the leaders. What about sanctions? Over the year, more than 3.5 million people came to us.”
According to the Director of the Tourism Department at the Belarus's Ministry of Sports and Tourism, Irina Voronovich, Belarus was visited by 1.6 million foreigners in 2023, including 750,000 Russians. She added that this figure does not account for tourists who traveled to Belarus through the border with Russia by personal vehicles. Since there is no full-fledged border control between the countries, the exact number of arrivals is difficult to calculate.
In April 2024, the Deputy Minister of Sports and Tourism cited a vastly different number of foreign tourists for the previous year — nearly 6 million, with 5 million being Russians — which might be attributed to the inclusion of Russians who arrived by car. The WTF highlights a significant discrepancy at that point.
Statistics started including tourists from Russia in 2016. According to Eurasian Economic Commission data, in 2017–2019 the numbers were even higher, with over 11 million border crossings annually.
The Weekly Top Fake team's examination of various tourist-visit rankings revealed that disparate statistics were employed, resulting in varying rankings for Belarus among its post-Soviet counterparts.
The common factor in these data is that, together with Russia, the leaders in tourism in the post-Soviet space are not Belarus, but Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. In 2023, Kyrgyzstan was visited by 8.5 million tourists, Uzbekistan - 6.6 million. Russia received 15 million foreign visitors that year.
Across the data, a clear trend emerges: Belarus is surpassed by Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as the top tourist destinations in the post-Soviet space, with 8.5 million and 6.6 million visitors, respectively, in 2023, while Russia attracted 15 million foreign tourists.
