Belarus is missing a tourist trick with Chagall

This the title of the Independent in which this article appeared. I love Chagall's works and I like Viciebsk (the spelling is wrong according the transliteration rules of the Belarusian Geo names), so I am happy that there are people who promote tourism to Belarus to the place where Chagall was born. It's pity though that the author (Mark Rowe) does not pay attention that "Belarusian" should be spelt with one "s". It seems to be a small thing, but it's important for a serious journalist ;)

Quick observation of the Economist

I've spent few hours reading the Economist and finding some new and interesting facts. I was surprised to find out that an average touris to Belarus spends some 4000USD! Wow! I would agree with the Economist that:

"This may be because businessmen are the usual visitors and in more inhospitable places costs are higher."

On the other hand, I do hope that there are just 'normal' tourists who are not very rich and still eager to see my country. And then if you calculate an average, one should keep in mind that total number of tourists to Belarus each year is really modest. Just look at the numbers, it's planned that till the 2010 Minsk will be visited by 150000 organised tourists. Is it in total from 1991??? Who knows...:) It's amazing that people in Belarus according to stats travel a lot with trains. Well, on the one hand it's obvious why they prefer trains to planes, as the last ones are very (VERY) expensive. Then it's better to travel with train rather than with buses as it's safer and more convinient. BUT, how come that we are on the third place keeping in mind that Belarusians are not really mobile? Do they travel within the country???

Armenia in Belarus

Well, guys, this is the day of surprises! still refering to the Armenian promo logo I googled it and I found one more logo by Levon Gavalian, which is also very nice (maybe even nicer;). So I went to the website of the designer, . And I found out that this logo was created for armenia.by. But here is the interesting part. Although this address is .by [Belarusian domain zone], it redirects to www.tourismarmenia.ru. Next, there are only two phone numbers of two guys in Armenia and emails. So, two things surprise me: 1. the style of the website is nice and attractive; 2. I don't understant who owns it. Well, it's strange, but amazing.