KYIV. April 19 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The number of foreign tourists visiting Ukraine in 2016 increased by 5.6% compared to 2015, to 13.6 million people, according to a report from the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, with reference to data from the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine.
According to its data, Moldovan citizens predominated among foreign tourists who visited Ukraine in 2016, they accounted for 32.9% or 4.474 million people.
At the same time, Belarusian citizens took a share of 13.4% (1.828 million people), Russians 11.3% (1.543 million people), Hungarians 9.3% (1.271 million people), and Polish citizens 8.8% (1.195 million people).
The number of tourists from Russia who visited Ukraine in 2016 increased by 16.8%, or by 221,643 people, compared to 2015.
Most of all tourist traffic to Ukraine in 2016 grew from Tajikistan: the figure tripled compared to 2015, to 165,158 people. The number of tourists from Uzbekistan increased by 1.9 times, to 136,021 people, from Lithuania by 48%, to 52,273 people, from Turkey by 44.7%, to 206,706 people, and from Israel by 45.1%, to 217,160 people.
According to the document, 95.3% of tourists visited Ukraine in 2016 for personal reasons, 2% on transit, 1.3% as tourists, 1.1% for other purposes, and 0.2% for service purposes.
