Roundup: Lithuania's World Heritage Curonian Spit in debate over visiting fees

It is up to Lithuania's unique Curonian Spit municipality to decide whether to increase the fees for visiting the region, with respect to both local residents and visiting tourists, Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius said on Tuesday.

"It is up to the municipality's competence to decide what should be the size of the fee, taking into consideration the interests of both local residents and people visiting the territory," the Prime Minister's spokeswoman said in an emailed statement to local website Delfi.

The public discussion on the fees for tourists visiting the Curonian Spit occurred after the region's mayor suggested last weekend that the payments might be increased five-fold as of the next summer season.

"I am planning to submit a proposal to municipal council to increase the fees up to 50 euro for a car," Darius Jasaitis, the Curonian Spit (Neringa) mayor, said in an interview with a local newspaper Lietuvos Zinios, published on Saturday.

"We are suffocating from cars here. However, people come to visit by one or two persons in one car," he added.

Currently, Lithuanian residents and foreign tourists visiting the Curonian Spit pay 10 euro per car during the summer season and 5 euro in winter. The fees vary depending on the size of the vehicle, such as motorbikes, buses or caravans. Taxes for passengers are not applied, nor are they applied to those on bikes. Around 3,000 cars arrive to the Curonian Spit each season.

Jasaitis insists that the current fee is too low, comparing the local prices with those in the Lithuanian capital.

"We don't find clean beach or restrooms for free in Vilnius, however, if you park your car in Vilnius, you pay more than 30 euro just for two days," Jasaitis explained.

The fees for the winter season are to remain the same as they are currently, he suggested.

Local Curonian Spit residents were furious about the mayor's proposal due to concerns that reduced tourist arrivals would cause local businesses to suffer. "It does not make sense," a local resident Arturas told the broadcaster LRT.

Some other local politicians were also cautious about the proposal. In their words, tourists to Curonian Spit decreased this year and increasing the fees would complicate the situation even further.

"Maybe there would be more rich tourists, however, they would not occupy all the residences that are being leased by local residents," Andrius Bagdonas, a member of the Neringa (Curonian Spit) municipality said in his commentary to media.

"If we want to solve the problem of cars, why don't we have comfortable public transport or bike services in the region?" he added.

According to him, if the mayor's proposals were implemented, the Spit would be available only to particular visitors, moreover, local residents would bear losses.

The Curonian Spit is a narrow sand peninsula 98 km long, which divides the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. The Curonian Spit was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000 as one of the most beautiful and unique landscapes in Europe.

The strip of sand, stretching into the sea, has several picturesque fishermen's villages: Juodkrante, Pervalka and Nida.

The region is famous for its fragile nature, which needs constant attention. In the South, the Lithuanian part of the Spit borders with the Kaliningrad region of the Russian Federation. The borderline marks the external borders of the European Union. Endit