Druskininkai Mayor Ricardas Malinauskas: 'Our resort never stops reinventing itself'

Under the leadership of Ricardas Malinauskas, the long-serving mayor, Druskininkai has transformed from a traditional sleepy spa town into one of Lithuania’s most dynamic year-round destinations. Nestled among lakes, pine forests, and mineral springs, the resort is now internationally recognized for its innovative tourism infrastructure and wellness facilities.

Today, Druskininkai is preparing for another leap forward. With a new Cultural and Congress Center under construction, a state-of-the-art multifunctional bus station nearing completion, and ambitious plans for Europe’s first year-round artificial wave park, the resort continues to reinvent itself while preserving its unique character.

The Baltic Times Magazine sat down with Mayor Malinauskas to discuss Druskininkai’s transformation, future projects, and vision for the resort.

Which socio-economic indicators and achievements of the municipality during your 26 years as mayor would you highlight most? 

As longevity and dignified aging have become increasingly important topics, I am pleased that the life expectancy of Druskininkai residents is among the highest in Lithuania. Perhaps it is because of our calm environment, clean air, pine forests, and mineral waters – it is a combination of factors.

I first felt the difference myself in 1983, when I visited Druskininkai for the first time to see my father in a sanatorium. The contrast between the air here and in Baisogala, in the Radviliskis district where I was born and raised, was immediate.

Druskininkai is also well known for its infrastructure adapted for people with disabilities. The municipality has received considerable recognition in this field. 

I am proud that Druskininkai is a convenient town both to live in and to visit.

Our ‘Druskininkietis Card’ – a resident card offering discounts on municipal services, entertainment, restaurants, public transport, and local businesses – has become extremely popular. Around 16,000 residents already have it, and about 200 local companies participate in the program.

We actively encourage people to officially register their residence in Druskininkai.

We are living in a time of geopolitical tension, and your municipality shares a border with Belarus. Do you feel any tension because of that?

To be honest, we do not feel any tension in the municipality, apart from military exercises that take place here a couple of times a year. 

Before relations deteriorated, our cooperation with Grodno was extensive and friendly. Even our hospitals, clinics, schools, and kindergartens cooperated, and our municipalities carried out joint projects.

Previously, visitors from Belarus and Russia made up the largest share of Druskininkai’s tourism market. Have you managed to compensate for their loss with tourists from new markets?

Indeed, before the war in Ukraine began in early 2022, guests from those countries formed the overwhelming majority. Now there are only a handful.

They – especially the Russians – were usually wealthy visitors. They came with entire families: children, grandparents, and they spent a great deal of money.

After losing them, we had to fundamentally rethink our tourism market and strategy in search of new markets. And that is not simple. Every market is unique.

You can buy advertisements in Scandinavian newspapers or on television, but it will bring almost no benefit. For Scandinavians, the most important thing is word of mouth – a recommendation from a neighbor, colleague, or relative.

Today Poland is our main tourism driver. Germany and Israel follow. I am pleased that we are already seeing the first ‘swallows’ – guests from Italy, Spain, and Portugal.

Our Snow Arena Druskininkai, the largest indoor ski complex in the Baltic States, hosts athletes from 66 countries, including Japan and South Korea, for training camps. Both athletes and coaches acknowledge that it has no equivalent anywhere in Europe. That is an excellent evaluation.

Does Lithuania have a clear and effective tourism strategy? Do Lithuanian resorts compete more with one another or cooperate?

If I were the Minister of Economy and Innovation or the head of ‘Travel Lithuania,’ (Lithuania’s national tourism promotion agency responsible for marketing the country as a travel destination abroad and encouraging domestic tourism – L. J.) of course I would say: ‘Absolutely! We travel everywhere promoting Lithuania.’

But I do not think they truly understand what tourism is or how to develop it.

When their representatives say that Japan or South Korea are key tourism markets for Lithuania, it sometimes seems to me that someone in the ministry simply wants to travel there at the taxpayers’ expense.

When thinking about those countries – and others – we should first work on a European scale. We should invite tourism representatives to Europe and, when possible, encourage them to visit Lithuania itself – to see Vilnius, Druskininkai, or Palanga with their own eyes.

I am convinced that this is how distant markets would discover us faster.

Lithuanians often believe we are already very well-known and highly desired as a tourism paradise. My experience says otherwise.

Drive beyond Warsaw toward Wroclaw and you will realize that geographical knowledge there about their nearest neighbours – I mean about Lithuania – is sometimes at the level of a first grader.

Small resort municipalities, such as Druskininkai or Palanga, are financially too weak to market themselves properly abroad – not only overseas, but even in neighboring Poland.

However, Druskininkai has developed unique tourism and leisure infrastructure despite being a small town. 

Indeed, we have. Our Snow Arena, a large indoor ski and snowboard complex, is the only year-round indoor winter sports center in the Baltic States. Druskininkai Aquapark is one of the largest spa and water entertainment complexes in the Baltics. Lynų kelias, Lithuania’s only cable car, crosses the Nemunas River and connects the Aquapark with Snow Arena. These are just a few of Druskininkai’s major tourist attractions.

Perhaps Druskininkai will one day even dig itself a sea without which a modern resort is hardly imaginable for some?

If we ever build a sea, it will be the best possible sea – under a roof and attractive all year round.

In fact, Druskininkai is planning an exceptional project – Europe’s first year-round artificial wave park with waves reaching up to four meters high.

The ‘Sea Waves’ complex could become one of the most prominent recreational attractions not only in Lithuania, but in all of Europe.

If we pursue it, it will be built in the village of Mizarai, next to the Snow Arena winter sports complex. A two-hectare area has been allocated for it.

It took the municipality two years to take over a regionally important road near Snow Arena in preparation for the project.

The development will follow either a public-private partnership, concession, or private investment model.

The planned investment value is estimated at between 50 and 80 million euros, depending on the technology chosen and the scope of the complex, although attracting European Union funding for such a project may prove difficult.

The project is expected to create around 250 to 300 jobs.

At present, land documentation procedures are underway.

The future complex is envisioned as a modern sports and active leisure center aimed both at professional surfing and at families and tourists.

The project also includes SPA and recreation zones, padel courts, freestyle skiing facilities, climbing walls, an artificial beach, a hotel, restaurants and cafés, as well as conference and event spaces.

It is estimated that the complex could host up to 5,000 visitors at one time.

In addition, Druskininkai is already building a 1,200-seat Cultural and Congress Center with a cinema. With a venue of this size, we will be able to host international events.

A 20-year lease agreement has already been signed with the operator selected through the municipality’s public tender – the company Universali infrastruktura.

Very soon, Druskininkai’s new bus station will also open its doors. It will be a multifunctional building designed to become a major attraction in the town.

The station infrastructure will not only be modern and convenient for travelers, but the complex itself will become much more than a transit point.

It will include shops, cafés, and an amphitheatre for events that will attract even more visitors to Druskininkai.

The project’s most distinctive feature will be a helium balloon rising directly from inside the building – the only attraction of its kind in the Baltic States – perfectly reflecting Druskininkai’s ambition to renew itself and move forward.

You were for many years a member of the influential, now ruling Lithuanian Social Democratic Party. You have been independent for a decade now. Has it become more difficult to open doors in important offices in Vilnius?

When you are popular and people are hanging medals around your neck, there is certainly no shortage of friends.

At times it may have seemed that every minister was my friend – I could barely keep up with all the phone calls.

But when you leave a party, many of those ‘friends’ leave you as well, even though I always communicated with them about public interests rather than personal ones.

It saddens me that some prime ministers never found the time or need to talk during their entire four-year terms.

This government – the coalition of the Social Democrats and Nemunas Dawn – is incomparably more open and accessible to regions and municipalities than some previous governments.

In 2022, you published your autobiographical book ‘It Is Time,’ in which you devoted much attention to governing Druskininkai, the backstage of Lithuanian politics, political conflicts, and what you describe as the merging of politics, law enforcement, and the media against you. Why was it important for you to write and publish this book?

I wrote the book together with evidence – documents, photographs, recordings of conversations. In the cases brought against me, many things were simply falsified.

If I had truly made mistakes, I would not be sitting here in front of you today – I might be sitting somewhere else.

I have always been calm about my decisions and actions. I have violated neither my conscience nor the law.

Unfortunately, in Lithuania politics, law enforcement, and the media are often intertwined. Some prosecutors even received state awards for investigations against me that were initiated at the request of politicians.

In the book, I also write about those, who by launching cases against me, tried to portray me as dishonest so that people would doubt whether I was telling the truth.

In life, I never look for enemies.

My task as mayor has always been simple: to help every person – whether it is a millionaire considering investments in Druskininkai or a street sweeper.

If tomorrow I were no longer mayor, I would still be able to walk through town without lowering my eyes or crossing to the other side of the street. I have nothing to hide and nothing to be ashamed of.

How do you imagine Druskininkai 25 years from now?

I certainly do not imagine it becoming a huge, urbanized city. That is neither my goal nor the direction of my decisions.

The most important thing is for the town to become even more modern and comfortable.

As far as cleanliness and order are concerned, we are already exemplary.

I would like service quality to continue improving – and prices to rise accordingly. That is inevitable if we want to remain competitive and retain qualified employees.

I also hope that in the future Druskininkai will be discovered by people who may not yet have even heard about it. I would like to encourage everyone to visit our resort and experience all the excellent amenities it has to offer.