VILNIUS - If hotel walls could talk, they'd have a lot to say about 2004. A total of 1.12 million people stayed at hotels and other accommodation establishments last year, a surge of 32 percent over 2003, Lithuania's Statistics Department reported last month.
Foreigners comprised 53 percent, or 590,000, of the total number of guests staying at hotels, guesthouses, motels, holiday and health centers.
Hotels and guesthouses posted a 41.6 percent annual increase in lodgers, to 756,500. Holiday centers attracted 128,900 guests, a rise of 16.5 percent from 2003, while the number of health-center visitors rose by 24 percent year-on-year to 112,100.
Overall, the number of foreign tourists to pass through the Baltic state's accommodation establishments surged by 41.6 percent.
The number of visitors from Germany grew by 43 percent year-on-year to 97,000, while the number of guests from Poland soared by 65 percent, to 75,200. The number of visitors from Latvia and Estonia together rose by 30 percent to 50,300, while the number of guests from EU countries went up by 47.7 percent.
Holiday Inn Vilnius and Ecotel Vilnius are two hotels thanking the EU for this massive inflow of outsiders. The former raised its full-year revenues by 11.7 percent, to 9.09 million litas (2.6 million euros), while the latter surged 89 percent, to 3.63 million litas. The investment group Invalda controls both companies.
"These results are due to the convenient location of our hotels in the center of Vilnius," said Darius Muizys, CEO of Valmeda, the direct owner of Holiday Inn Vilnius. "Moreover, we benefited from active marketing campaigns, participation in international tourism exhibitions, and improving the professional skills of our staff."
Holiday Inn Vilnius posted a net profit of 844,600 litas, a surge of 2.8 percent from 2003. Although Ecotel Vilnius refused to disclose its net profit figure, the hotel closed the year in the black, said Valmeda, which controls Ecotel Vilnius via Kelioniu Viesbuciai.
As far as occupancy, the hotel's number rose to 50.74 percent from 36 percent in 2003, while the Holiday Inn Vilnius increased its occupancy to 47.71 percent, from 42.87 percent a year ago.
These numbers are not far off in representing hotel and guesthouse rates nation-wide. Lithuania's lodging occupancy rate rose to 36.7 percent in 2004, from 32.5 percent a year ago. In Vilnius, the rate was up to 45.2 percent, from 39.9 percent in 2003.
Hotels and guesthouses in the capital provided temporary accommodation for 378,200 visitors, a surge of 42.7 percent from 2003. The number of guests from abroad soared by 45.6 percent to 221,200, year-on-year.
But growth didn't stop at city borders. A total of 361 farmsteads offering rural tourism services welcomed 102,700 guests, including 12,700 foreigners.
Overall, foreigners spent 929 million litas in the first half of last year, 12.8 percent more than in the same period last year.
