Baltic tourism industry makes headway in Chinese, Japanese, U.S. markets: officials

During the past five years the tourism industry of the three Baltic states -- Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia -- has made an impressive headway in the Chinese, Japanese and U.S. markets, Latvian Economics Minister Arvils Aseradens said Tuesday.

"Over the past five years the Baltic states have seen a huge growth in the number of tourists from China, Japan and the U.S. I am proud to say that this is a result of hard work and successful cooperation among our three neighbor countries," Aseradens told the annual tourism forum Baltic Connecting here.

Andris Ozols, head of the Latvian Investment and Development Agency, also noted a stable growth in the number of Asian tourists in Latvia, adding that many of them included Latvia and other Baltic countries in their trips to the Nordic region.

"Our convenient geographic location enables us to offer visits to three or four various countries in a single trip. We may not have too many global brands, but we can offer the luxury of clean air, great food, authentic wildlife, friendly people and unique history with deep cultural roots," Ozols told the event.

Baltic Connecting is the Baltic states' most important tourism cooperation project, initiated by Latvia ten years ago. This year's event focused on the growing significance of faraway markets. Endit