Republic of Belarus Holds Round Table on Issues of Ecological and Social Tourism

A multimedia center of International news agency Sputnik in Minsk (the Republic of Belarus) became a venue for the round table “Development of Ecological and Social Tourism in the Republic of Belarus and Safety of Belarusian tourists on Recreational Trips”. The event stressed a significance of model laws on Ecotourism” and on Social Tourism, which were adopted by the IPA CIS during the recent session.

Chairman of the Board of Belarusian Touristic Union Filipp Guli, General Director of Tourism Unitary Enterprise “Belarustourist” Ludmila Senkovskaya, Head of Medical Insurance Division of Insurance Company "Belgosstrakh" Ludmila Kulak and Head of Analytical Research, Science and Information Office of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of Republic of Belarus Elena Kaminskaya participated in the round table. Experts discussed the current situation in the field of social and ecological tourism in the Republic of Belarus and shared their expectations for the further development in these areas taking into account the adoption of the IPA CIS model laws.

Secretary of the IPA CIS Permanent Commission on Culture, Information, Tourism and Sport Konstantin Pshenko took part in the round table via videoconferencing. He stressed the particular attention paid by the IPA CIS to the development of legal framework in the field of tourism. “A harmonized legal framework is essential to address the problems discussed here. Tourism is not only about sightseeing and taking part in different events and activities. Tourism implies the issues of safety, preservation of the cultural heritage and customs compliance issues,” Konstantin Pshenko said. He also noted that 11 model laws had been adopted by the IPA CIS in this sphere and focused on the model law on Social Tourism.