February 01 / 2012
Lithuania is the second in Europe by international visitor growth in 2011
According to the European Travel Commission, bringing together 33 European national tourism organizations, in 2011, Lithuania is reported as one of the leaders in Europe by international visitor growth and hotel occupancy.
The river Merkys, the right tributary of Nemunas, the largest river of Lithuania. Photo by fotoskrydis.lt
As the ETC reports, the Baltic countries demonstrated the steepest surge in international visitor growth: Latvia – 20. 8%, Lithuania – 20.3%, and Estonia – 15.6%. Romania also was among the top five (12.4%.) just like Ireland (12.3%). Much smaller increase in the number of visitors in 2011 was observed in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom (3& each), while Montenegro recorded a slight decline (-0.1%), against 2010.
By international nights in 2011, Lithuania again demonstrated a remarkable growth of 19.5 per cent against 2010, placing it the second in Europe after Bulgaria (19.9%). Latvia ran behind with 7.7 per cent, Estonia – 17.2% and Sweden –14.7%.
The ETC report noted a high growth in hotel occupancy in Lithuania in 2011. The occupancy went up by 13.9 per cent against 2010, and this is the third best result after Iceland (18.6%) and Estonia (17.6%). The slowest occupancy growth was observed among France (0.9%) and Austria (0.4%), while Switzerland and Turkey were in a slight decline, (-0.1% and -0.8% respectively).
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