In Riga, the number of foreign guests increased by 20% / day in the first quarter

In March, 77,652 foreign tourists were hosted in Riga, which is 5% more than in the same month last year. Bikov noted that in January, the number of foreign guests in Latvia increased by 33%, which was also facilitated by a football game with the Dutch team in Amsterdam « Ajax ».

He predicted that the number of tourists in Riga this year would increase as several sporting events were planned.

Compared to the same period last year, the number of foreign guests from the UK increased the highest number of foreign guests in the first quarter of this year. Bikov explained that British tourists’ growth in Riga was facilitated by cooperation with the airline « British Airways ».

Followed by Sweden, who visited Riga in the first quarter of this year 36% more times than in the first quarter of last year. Norwegian tourists have visited Riga 31%more times, Estonia – 25%, Poland – 20%, Finland – 8%, Germany – 4%, and Lithuanian tourists visited Riga 1%less than in the first quarter.

Working to run the ferry from Riga, but as Bikov noted, there are ferry routes from Tallinn to Sweden, but there are more Swedish tourists in Latvia. According to the Riga Investment and Tourism Agency, Swedish tourists spent 83,437 nights in Riga hotels last year and 74,159 nights in Tallinn.

Mayor of Riga Vilnis Kirsis (JV) added at a press conference that previous ferry operators who provided traffic from Riga believes that the opening of the routes would cause losses, so the operators would like the loss part to be covered. Thus, the Riga Municipality is currently cooperating with the Ministry of Economics (MoE), the Ministry of Transport (SM) and the Latvian Investment and Development Agency (LIDA) to understand how these costs could be covered.

« Other ferry traffic operators and ship companies are also being sought. Unfortunately, this is not as fast as you would like, but this year the cruise ships are expected to increase in the port of Riga, » the cherry added. He said that by properly attracting cruise vessels to Riga, it is possible to generate higher revenue than ferry traffic, so one of the challenges in the future was to use this opportunity more effectively.

Asked how to attract tourists in Riga from distant regions, Bikov said the agency was focusing on countries that have a direct connection to Riga, such as airlight. « When Norwegian’s Norwegian airline starts direct flights from Riga to the United States, it will be thinking about how to attract tourists from the region, for example, » he said.

He also informed that the number of foreign guests in Riga hotels last year accounted for 1.135 million, which is 15.3% more than in 2023. By comparing the capitals of the Baltic States, in 2024, the largest or 2.545 million overseas foreign guests spent Tallinn tourist accommodation, followed by Riga, where 2,025 million nights were spent and Vilnius 1.43 million nights were spent.

Rita Linda Pede, head of the International Cooperation and Marketing Department, informed that this year the Agency will focus on attracting Scandinavia, Baltic States, Poland, Germany and British tourists to create digital advertising, seasonal campaigns, airline campaigns, big events and more.

She emphasized that, for example, Poland is a relatively new target market, but due to campaigns, the number of Polish tourists in Riga increased by 20.2%last year.

It has already been reported that the number of nights spent in Latvian hotels and other tourist accommodation in the first three months of this year has increased by 10.8% compared to the corresponding period of 2024, accounting for 802,700, according to the Central Statistical Bureau.

Among them, the number of foreign guests’ nights in Latvian hotels and other tourist accommodation in the first three months of 2025 increased by 18.5% compared to the corresponding period of 2024 and was 483,900, while the number of nights spent in Latvian hotels and other tourist accommodation increased by 0.8%.

In the first quarter of this year, 460,700 guests were served in Latvian tourist accommodation, which is 9% more than in the first three months of 2024, including the number of foreign guests served by 16.3% and was 265,800 and the local population has increased by 0.5% to 194,900.

By contrast, the number of guests served in Latvian tourist accommodation in the corresponding period of 2019 in the first three months of this year is 0.2% higher, including the number of foreign guests served by 11.9%, while the number of local people served has increased by 23.3%. At the same time, the number of nights spent in the guests is 11.9%behind 2019, including foreign guests by 21.5%.