Tourism in Latvia

Tourism in Latvia is an emerging industry in the nation of Latvia.^[1] 2.8 million visitors were recorded in 2018, an increase of 8% compared to 2017. In 2016, tourism contributed 4.5% of Latvia's GVA, and counted for 1.3 million euros in export revenue, and tourism-related industries accounted for 8.5% of total employment, or 77100 jobs in total. This was accompanied by significant growth in the number of hotels and accommodations in Latvia, rising 37% from 607 in 2018 to 831 in 2018, according to a 2020 OECD report. ^[2] Most tourists in Latvia come from neighbouring countries, primarily Russia, Germany, and the other two Baltic states, Estonia and Lithuania. ^[3] Most tourists stayed in Riga, the national capital. However, domestic tourism has been seeing a decline in Latvia, with less and less Latvians willing to travel abroad.

The Ministry of Economics^[4] manages tourism policy in Latvia, as determined by the 1998 Tourism Law, and owns the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia, an organization responsible for enactment of tourism policy in Latvia. The total budget for tourism in Latvia in 2018 was 2.6 million euros, combining funding from the state, the European Regional Development Fund, and from the European Destinations of Excellence programme. In 2014, the Ministry of Economics developed the 2014-20 Tourism Development Guidelines, a plan similar to that of neighbouring Estonia's National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP), and along with the Investment and Development Agency's Tourism Marketing Strategy 2018-23, aim to increase the knowledge of Latvia as a tourist destination and to run tourism in Latvia sustainably,^[5] and to better educate the Latvian service sector in tourism management.^[6]