26 August, Minsk /Andrei Asfura - BELTA/. In Belarus, the export of tourism services for the first half of this year increased by 34.8% and reached $59.1 million. This was reported to BELTA correspondent by the press secretary of the Ministry of Sports and Tourism, Vitaly Semashko. Also, from January to June, the import of tourism services grew and amounted to $17.4 million. This was primarily due to business trips of managers and specialists of Belarusian organizations abroad. Thus, in the tourism sector for January-June, a positive balance of $41.7 million was formed. In addition, domestic tourism developed actively in the first half of the year. The volume of paid tourism and excursion services across the republic increased by 32.1% during this period. Despite the positive dynamics, the Ministry of Sports considers the work of the departments of physical culture, sports and tourism to inform citizens, including foreigners, about existing tourism facilities and routes in the country to be insufficient. In addition, today it is necessary to increase the number of road signs to tourist sites, as well as to more actively develop special regional tourism development programs. In particular, in the Vitebsk region, an action plan under the conditional name "100" was adopted. According to the plan, within a year, 100 hunting lodges, 100 recreation areas around lakes, 100 roadside service facilities, and 100 agro-tourism estates are to be commissioned in the region.-0-

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