Lithuania's tourism business has exceeded projections in the first quarter pf 2011 and even beat records in some sectors, the Lithuanian State Department of Tourism (VTD) said. Over the Q1 of 2011, the number of tourists in Lithuania grew by 39.4% year-on-year.

Over January-March last year, 107,000 tourists stayed in Lithuanian commercial accommodation establishments, while this year the number went up to 150,000. The tourist traffic is reported to have increased from the tourism markets of great importance to Lithuania, writes LETA/ELTA.

Over the Q1, the largest increases were recorded in the numbers of tourists coming from Russia (61%), Belarus (53%), Poland (28%), Germany (31%), Estonia (34%), Great Britain (21%), Norway (57%), the Netherlands (34%), Belgium (31%) and the U.S. (68%). The growth in tourist numbers from Finland by 85% and from Spain by 71% made a pleasant surprise, VTD Head Dr Raimonda Balniene said.

Kaunas earlier received an award from the popular Spanish travel magazine QTravel as the most attractive destination in 2010. In the Q1, the largest number of tourists came from Ukraine. The growth in the tourist traffic from the country reached as much as 104%.

The 7.6-% growth in the local tourism is also good news to the tourism sector as it hardly stood at 1% in 2010.

Source:
http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/good_for_business/?doc=41734