MINSK, 11 October (BelTA) – Old castles and castle complexes in Belarus are as attractive to tourists as the Alps in the Austrian Tyrol, Austrian Ambassador to Belarus Aloisia Woergetter said at the presentation of the tourist potential of Tyrol on 11 October, BelTA learned from the embassy.
The diplomat said that she loves to travel and has already visited many famous tourist destinations and castles and has been impressed by what she saw. “People of our two countries share the interest in sport, tourism and culture,” she said. She also highlighted that tourism strategy in Tyrol is based on the principles (history, customs, sport) that can be the key to the successful tourism promotion in Belarus.
The ambassador hails from the federal state Tyrol that is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Austria. Over 2.3 million people visited Tyrol last year.
The Austrian vision for the development of tourism was conveyed by Head of the Tirol Tourist Board Florian Kahr, who came to Minsk to explore the Belarusian tourism market and share his experience. Florian Kahr studied political science and Slavonic studies in Innsbruck (Tyrol's capital), Simferopol and Moscow. His areas of interest now is the Chinese, Korean, Russian and Ukrainian tourist markets.
Florian Kahr noted that contribution of tourism to Tyrol's GDP is 17.5%. It is significantly higher than the overall figure for Austria, which amounts to approximately 7%. According to Florian Kahr, tourist traditions in Tyrol go back over 100 years. Tyrol makes an active use of the authentic features of this land to promote tourism, for example, mountain farms in the Alps. More than half of all tourists come here in winter for skiing and mountain tourism that are the most popular tourist activities. Florian Kahr explained how this rural region in Austria with difficult public transport access turned structural difficulties into advantages.
The presentation also noted that a direct Belavia flight to Munich will also facilitate tourism promotion since the distance between Munich and Tyrol is quite small.
