Press release, 22 May 2015

A joint meeting titled Building a Baltic Tourism Region – Investment for Tomorrow was held by the Economics, Energy and Innovation Committee, the Education, Science and Culture Committee, and the Welfare Committee of the Baltic Assembly (BA) in Jurbarkas.

Skirmantas Mockevičius, Mayor of Jurbarkas District Municipality, welcomed the participants and told them about the district of Jurbarkas and its prospects in the area of tourism. He referred to the restored Panemunės Castle, which hosted the joint meeting and which is still under reconstruction, as an example to be followed in developing the tourism sector. “This is the right way forward for Lithuania”, Mr Mockevičius noted.

In his address, Bronius Pauža, Chairman of the BA Economics, Energy and Innovation Committee, gave a brief overview of the history of Jurbarkas, dating back to the 13th century, and then focused greatly on the matter of Baltic cooperation. Mr Pauža stressed that the joint meeting of the BA committees was a continuation of the work that had been launched earlier. The Chairman reminded the participants of the fact that back in 2013 the Baltic Assembly called on the governments to elaborate a joint long-term Baltic tourism strategy for 2014–2020 as the basis for regional profiling and cooperation in the tourism industry. During the conference of the Baltic Assembly on 11 October 2013, the Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Lithuanian Medical Tourism Cluster, the Lithuanian Resorts Association, the Latvian Health Tourism Cluster, the Latvian Resorts Association, and the Estonian Health Tourism Cluster. The Chairman of the BA Committee said that the aim of the joint meeting was to learn of the implementation of this and other documents, ways to better promote the Baltic region, and the main challenges for efficient Baltic cooperation in the tourism sector.

For more information on the BA events, please visit the dedicated website at BA2015.lrs.lt.

 

Background information about the tourism sector in the Baltic States (based on the country report of the European Commission in 2014)

 

Lithuania. The total contribution of travel and tourism to the national economy exceeded 4% of GDP in 2011 and is forecast to rise by 4.6% each year until 2022. Adventure tourism, cultural tourism, business tourism, health and medical tourism, and cruising are among the key subsectors of tourism. Tourists mainly arrive from bordering countries, namely Poland, Russia, Latvia and Belarus, as well as from Germany, the UK, Finland and Italy.

Latvia. The total contribution of travel and tourism to GDP was 8.1% in 2013 and is forecast to rise by 5.4% in 2024. Cultural and natural tourism followed by medical, recreational and business tourism, are the main aspects of the national tourism strategy. Tourists mainly arrive from Lithuania, Russia, Sweden, Estonia, Finland and Germany.

Estonia. The tourism sector in Estonia contributes directly some 3% of GDP while the overall impact of the sector on GDP reaches almost 9.5% and has been growing over the past years and notably with the accession to the EU. The key markets for the Estonian tourism include its neighbouring countries, such as Finland, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, as well as Sweden, the UK, Germany and the Netherlands. Recent years have seen an increase of tourists from Asia. Cultural heritage tourism, rural tourism and sailing are the main offers of the Estonian tourism sector.

Lithuanian Presidency of the Baltic Assembly

On 1 January 2015, Lithuania took over the Presidency of the Baltic Assembly. This year, the Seimas plans to hold 14 international events, with the majority of them hosted by the Seimas in Vilnius and four of them held in Kaunas, Klaipėda, Palanga and Šiauliai.

The Lithuanian Presidency adopted the slogan For a Growing and United Baltic Region and set the following priorities: developing a growing and credible Baltic Region; secure Baltic Region; a sustainable and competitive society in the Region; and the Baltic Region in the world: development of regional networks.

The Baltic Assembly is an international organisation for cooperation among the parliaments of the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Latvia, and the Republic of Lithuania, established in Tallinn on 8 November 1991. The headquarters of its Secretariat is based in Riga, Latvia (http://baltasam.org/en/).

The Presidency of the Baltic Assembly rotates annually among Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.

 

Jolanta Anskaitienė, Public Relations Unit, Communications Department, tel. +370 5 239 6508, e-mail: [email protected]