694.2 thousand visitors stayed at Latvian tourist accommodation establishments in Q2 2017, which is 13.3 % more than during the respective period of 2016.

Latvia may experience a 10% increase in the number of tourists this year, which is a very good result, said President of Latvian Hotels and Restaurants Association Janis Pinnis in an interview to LNT 900 seconds programme.

Estonian ferry and cruise company Tallink is testing this week the interest of passengers to take a cruise trip from Helsinki to Riga.

The most popular travel destinations for spending the annual vacation among Latvian holiday-makers are Italy, Spain and local destinations, a travel agency concluded in an opinion poll.

53% of Latvia residents most often decide to travel within Latvia, not foreign countries, according to results of Baltic International Bank’s Latvian barometer.

In the first three months of 2017, a total of 263.5 thousand people were serviced in Riga’s hotels and tourist accommodations. 221.3 thousand of those tourists were foreign guests. Compared with the same period of last year, the number of tourists has grown 7%.

A total of 397.4 thousand visitors stayed at Latvian tourist accommodation establishments in Q1 2017, which is 8.6 % more than during the first three months of 2016.

In 2016, foreign travellers crossed the border of Latvia 6.8 million times, which is 0.7 % less than during the previous year. Last year foreign travellers spent EUR 645.2 million in Latvia – EUR 97.0 million or 13.1 % less than in 2015.

According to a new report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) Latvia is ranked 54th in the world when it comes to travel and tourism competitiveness, lsm.lv reports.

Outgoing tourism was the priority turnover creation engine. It was EUR 15 million last year. Ingoing tourism secured turnover of EUR 1.8 million, according to data from Latvia Tours for 2016.