diff --git a/shell/shell_output.py b/shell/shell_output.py
index 1be2ab5..f7dbb71 100644
--- a/shell/shell_output.py
+++ b/shell/shell_output.py
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ class PrettyOutputFormatter(object):
     self.prettytable.clear_rows()
     try:
       map(self.prettytable.add_row, rows)
-      return self.prettytable.get_string()
+      return self.prettytable.get_string().encode('utf-8')
     except Exception, e:
       # beeswax returns each row as a tab separated string. If a string column
       # value in a row has tabs, it will break the row split. Default to displaying
diff --git a/tests/shell/test_shell_commandline.py b/tests/shell/test_shell_commandline.py
index bab959d..c0fb7dd 100644
--- a/tests/shell/test_shell_commandline.py
+++ b/tests/shell/test_shell_commandline.py
@@ -343,6 +343,16 @@ class TestImpalaShell(object):
     assert RUSSIAN_CHARS.encode('utf-8') in result.stdout
 
   @pytest.mark.execute_serially
+  def test_international_characters_prettyprint(self):
+    """Regression test for IMPALA-2717"""
+    RUSSIAN_CHARS = (u"А, Б, В, Г, Д, Е, Ё, Ж, З, И, Й, К, Л, М, Н, О, П, Р,"
+                     u"С, Т, У, Ф, Х, Ц,Ч, Ш, Щ, Ъ, Ы, Ь, Э, Ю, Я")
+    args = """-q "select '%s'" """ % RUSSIAN_CHARS
+    result = run_impala_shell_cmd(args.encode('utf-8'))
+    assert 'UnicodeDecodeError' not in result.stderr
+    assert RUSSIAN_CHARS.encode('utf-8') in result.stdout
+
+  @pytest.mark.execute_serially
   def test_config_file(self):
       """Test the optional configuration file"""
       # Positive tests