Development of the tourism sphere in the Republic Belarus in 2017-2021 and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

International tourism has become one of the sectors of the global economy most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of the study is to identify the main features of the development of the tourism industry of the Republic of Belarus in 2017–2021, as well as to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international and domestic tourism of the republic. Quantitative indicators reflecting the development of tourism in the Republic of Belarus in 2020 fell from 5 to 10 times. In 2021, they mostly began to recover, but only some of the indicators, mainly related to domestic tourism, reached the level of the pre-pandemic period. In the structure of domestic and inbound tourism, there was a decrease in the share of sports and health tourism in favor of recreational and other types of tourism. The volume of inbound tourism fell significantly more than outbound tourism, especially for tourists outside the CIS countries. In the ratio of foreign tourist flows in the regions of the republic, the share of the Grodno region has sharply decreased from 25.9 to 0.4 %, and the flow to a number of other regions has also noticeably decreased. Almost 90 % of all tourists began to go to the Brest region and Minsk.