Slesers says spend, and they will come

  • 2010-07-28
  • Staff and wire reports

RIGA - The tourism industry should be one of the priorities in the development of Latvia, and therefore the state of Latvia. Riga City Council and Jurmala City Council should allocate 9 million lats (12.8 million euros) altogether for tourism marketing next year, Riga Deputy Mayor Ainars Slesers (Latvia’s First Party/Latvia’s Way) said at a meeting with representatives of the tourism industry on July 22. Slesers noted that Riga City Council plans to allocate 4 million lats for tourism marketing next year, twice as much as this year, and the state should allocate as much.

In Slesers’ opinion, Jurmala City Council should also allocate at least 1 million lats for tourism marketing measures.
Without saying how he arrived at this exact figure, or on what studies he justifies his claimed results, the deputy mayor continued, saying “Consequently, if all of Latvia allocated in total 9 million lats for marketing next year, the tourism industry would experience a ‘real explosion’ and a massive influx of tourists. As a result, unemployment would decrease and the whole economic situation would improve, because the potential of tourism in Latvia is underestimated,” said Slesers.

Riga Tourism Development Bureau, the office responsible for Riga’s advertising activities, this year plans to spend 2 million lats on advertising campaigns for Riga, as well as more than 300,000 lats that was not utilized last year.