The Belarus online booking service vetliva.com has been in operation for a year already. The service has recently celebrated its 550,000th website user, Ariura Yoshiharu from Japan, and gave him signature souvenirs.
Ariura Yoshiharu said he used the website to book several services: an English-language sightseeing tour around Minsk and visits to Mir Castle and Nesvizh Castle. Before his trip to Belarus vetliva talked to Ariura Yoshiharu. And here's what they learned.
For Ariura Yoshiharu this is the first visit to Belarus. The Japanese traveler has already visited 40 European countries.
Before his trip to Belarus, he did a bit of research on the history of the country, the castles in Mir and Nesvizh. He also learned that Minsk was almost completely destroyed during the WWII. He also noted that the Japanese know very little about Belarus.
Traveling is a hobby for Ariura Yoshiharu. He has his favorite places. For instance, he has visited Italy 12 times and plans to go there again. Ariura Yoshiharu has come to Belarus for three days. He plans to take a walk around Minsk, see the castles in Mir and Nesvizh and complete his trip with a visit to Brest. On the first day of his visit Ariura Yoshiharu was amazed by beautiful broad streets and magnificent and unusual buildings of the Belarusian capital.
According to the statistics, health resorts is the most visited section of the website, with 260,000 visitors a year. The second most popular section is excursions, with 180,000 unique visitors. The section with sightseeing ranks third, with 55,000 unique visitors.
Over the past year the website vetliva has been used by travelers from Russia (42.3%), Belarus (28.1%), other CIS states (14.5%), and also tourists from Japan, Australia, Indonesia, the United States, China, and other countries.
Tourists from Russia and other CIS member states tend to buy tours to Belarusian health resorts, while travelers from European countries are more interested in excursions. It is encouraging that Belarusians have started actively exploring their country, too (at the start of 2018 the number of excursion tours purchased by Belarusians was up by 15% compared with the same period last year).
vetliva.com is an online booking service featuring a broad choice of excursions, health resorts and accommodation facilities, from rural estates to luxury hotels. The online service runs a youtube channel and makes videos for those who want to learn more about Belarus. For example, last year the VETLIVA.BY team went on a 7-day tour across Belarus and filmed all national parks.
Here are some of the most breathtaking shots made by the vetliva team during their tours across Belarus.
