18.9 million foreign citizens visited Ukraine in 2006

18.9 million foreign citizens visited Ukraine in 2006. Compared to the year 2005, the tourist inflow grew by 7%.

State Tourism Service chief Anatoliy Pakhlia said this to a news conference today.

The inflow structure looks as follows: visitors from the CIS countries – 11.9 million people (63%), EU countries – 6.3 million people (33%), other countries – 0.6 million people (4%), according to the State Tourism Service.

The number of visits from the CIS countries grew up by 9%. In particular, the tourist inflow from Russia grew by 380 thousand people, Belarus – by 285.1 thousand, Moldova – 275 thousand.

Last year 16.9 million Ukrainian tourists left the country to pay visits to the CIS countries (49%), EU countries (44%), other countries (7%).