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Minister of Tourism, Stas Misezhnikov and his Belarussian counterpart, Minister of Sport and Tourism, Oleg Kachan, will in the coming days sign a new tourism agreement in Minsk, the Belarus capital, with the aim of strengthening tourist ties between the two countries.

The new tourism agreement will last for a period of five years and will be renewed automatically afterwards.  It is intended to significantly expand the activities for wholesalers and to upgrade ties between new and existing airlines with the aim of removing existing obstructions and to increase seating capacity.

Alongside this, there will be other issues such as cooperation between the tourist authorities of the two countries, training manpower and distributing tourism material.

This is Minister Misezhnikov’s first working trip to Belarus and during his three days visit he is expected to meet with the Minister of the Economy Nikolai Zaichenko and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Martynov.

"The Ministry of Tourism will in the coming years strengthen its activities in conjunction with countries that were fountainheads to Israel, this is broadening the activities with other Eastern European countries and in Asia.  This activity will focus on the removal of obstacles, tightening of connections and marketing activities focusing on realizing the potential in these countries,” announced the ministry.

In 2008, 18,000 Belarussians visited Israel, an increase of 67 percent compared to 2007.

Israel has signed 33 tourism agreements with different countries, among them Russia, China, Italy, Spain, India and Peru.