Did Belarus overtake Poland and the Baltic states in tourism attractiveness? What the rankings measure

Publication date: 30 July 2026

Claim

Figures for foreign entries and Belarus's position in an international table have been presented in the Belarusian information space as proof that the country has become a more attractive tourist destination than Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.

Verdict

Misleading. A place in a table of international arrivals is not a ranking of overall tourism attractiveness. In the table examined by the Belarusian Investigative Center, Poland ranked far above Belarus. A separate index in which Belarus placed 53rd measures visa-free access for foreign passport holders, not the quality of the tourism environment or actual travel demand.

In brief

• The Belarusian Investigative Center found that Belarus ranked 48th with 3.6 million foreign arrivals, while Poland placed 2nd in the table being cited.

• Border crossings, international arrivals, and guests registered by accommodation establishments are not the same measure.

• An official Belarusian page cites 53rd place in the Welcoming Countries Rank 2025. That index ranks countries by the number of foreign passports accepted without a visa. It does not evaluate infrastructure, safety, travel costs, service quality, or visitor satisfaction.

• Official Polish statistics recorded 38.8 million guests in accommodation establishments and 97.6 million overnight stays in 2024. Latvia recorded 2.8 million guests in accommodation establishments in 2025, including 1.7 million non-residents. These datasets use their own definitions and should not be mixed with Belarusian border-entry figures.

Why this matters

Changing the indicator changes the meaning of the data. A high number of entries can include transit, family visits, business travel, shopping trips, and repeated border crossings by the same person. It does not show how attractive a country is for leisure, how developed its tourism infrastructure is, or how long visitors stay.

This substitution is useful in propaganda. Neutral statistics become a competition with neighboring countries even though the original datasets answer different questions.

What we checked

We checked:

1. the Belarusian Investigative Center's analysis of the comparison between Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia;

2. the official description of Belarus's place in the Welcoming Countries Rank 2025;

3. official Polish accommodation statistics for 2024;

4. official Latvian tourist accommodation statistics for 2025;

5. the methodological difference between a border arrival, a tourist, and a guest registered by an accommodation establishment.

Evidence

1. The cited table does not show Belarus ahead of Poland

The Belarusian Investigative Center checked the assertion that Belarus had supposedly overtaken its neighbors. According to its analysis, Belarus placed 48th with 3.6 million foreign arrivals. Poland ranked 2nd in the same table. The conclusion that Belarus was ahead of Poland therefore does not follow even from the selected comparison.

The Center also reported that Belarus fell to 53rd place in the newer 2025 table, while neighboring countries were one position higher. This again does not support the claimed lead.

2. The 53rd-place indicator measures visa openness, not attractiveness

The official website of the president of Belarus states that the country ranks 53rd in the Welcoming Countries Rank 2025. The same page explains the criterion: countries are ranked by how many foreign passport holders they admit without a visa.

Visa openness can affect a travel decision, but it is only one factor. The index does not measure tourist numbers, visitor spending, the quality of transport or hotels, flight connectivity, safety, or visitor experience. Describing it as a general ranking of tourism attractiveness is inaccurate.

3. National statistical agencies count different things

Statistics Poland reports that 38.8 million tourists stayed in Polish accommodation establishments with ten or more bed places in 2024. They spent 97.6 million nights there. This is accommodation data, not a simple count of border crossings.

Latvia's Central Statistical Bureau reports that accommodation establishments received 2.8 million guests in 2025, of whom 1.7 million were non-residents. The Bureau describes the scope of its survey and notes that a person who stays in several places is registered at each establishment.

Numbers from Belarus, Poland, and Latvia can therefore be compared only after checking the definition, period, coverage, and unit of measurement. Placing different figures side by side does not prove that one country is more attractive than another.

4. An international arrival is not always a tourist trip

In international tourism statistics, a tourist is generally a visitor who stays at least one night. Border data may include same-day trips and repeat entries. Accommodation statistics may omit very small properties, private stays, or visitors staying with relatives.

Without a common methodology, the ranking becomes a comparison of unlike quantities.

What remains unknown

Open sources do not establish how many people in each Belarusian figure were unique overnight tourists, how many were repeat border crossings, and how many travelled for transit, shopping, work, or family reasons. A precise comparison requires data for the same period collected under the same international definition.

Conclusion

The claim that Belarus overtook Poland and the Baltic states in tourism attractiveness is unsupported. It mixes at least three different concepts: foreign entries, guests in accommodation establishments, and visa openness. Poland ranked above Belarus in the table used for the claim, while Belarus's 53rd place concerns entry rules rather than the destination's overall attractiveness.

Sources

1. Belarusian Investigative Center, tourism comparison fact-check: https://investigatebel.org/en/fakenews/turizm-belarus-polsha-latviya

2. Official website of the President of the Republic of Belarus, Tourism: https://president.gov.by/en/belarus/tourism

3. Statistics Poland, Occupancy of tourist accommodation establishments in 2024: https://stat.gov.pl/en/topics/culture-tourism-sport/tourism/occupancy-of-tourist-accommodation-establishments-in-2024,11,3.html

4. Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia, tourism accommodation results for 2025: https://stat.gov.lv/en/statistics-themes/business-sectors/tourism/press-releases/27588-latvian-hotels-and-other

5. UN Tourism, World Tourism Barometer data and definitions: https://www.untourism.int/un-tourism-world-tourism-barometer-data

Corrections and updates

We will update this article if comparable international data for unique overnight tourists over the same period becomes available. Errors can be reported through the Unity Bridge contact channels.