News

During the opening of the 16th International Trade Fair of Tourism, Sport and Leisure “Vivattur 2010” in Vilnius, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis noted that the responsibility of the Lithuanian consular service was to protect each and every Lithuanian citizen abroad.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is directly related to tourism matters. Firstly, it is illustrated by an entry in our passports: “the bearer of this passport is under the protection of the Republic of Lithuania.” Our biggest commitment is to organize the consular service so that our citizen, who travels West, South or North, would always know that he/she is protected by the state,” Minister A.Ažubalis said.

According to the Minister, the people of Lithuania lived behind the Iron Curtain for a long time and only twenty years ago received something they had desired very much - the freedom of movement, although it is often underestimated now.

Most tourists come to Lithuania from neighbouring countries. Therefore, we aim to develop regional cooperation. Lithuania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs supports the initiative of the Baltic Sea states to create a common Baltic tourism route. Agreements were drafted with the Russian Federation and Belarus on border area traffic, which should facilitate the crossing of an external EU border by residents living within 50 km distance from the border. It is expected that the agreements will be signed shortly.

According to the data of the Department of Statistics, about 1165 thousand guests stayed in Lithuanian accommodation establishments during 9 months in 2009. In the first half of 2009, 503.1 thousand Lithuanians tourists left abroad. According to the data of the Bank of Lithuania, incoming tourism generated an estimated 1098.5 million Litas in revenue in the first half of 2009 in Lithuania.