Every fifth tourist in Lithuania is Belarusian

VILNIUS - Every fifth foreign tourist in Lithuania comes from Belarus, said Lithuanian State Department of Tourism (VTD), following its first visit to Minsk-held tourism exposition OTDYCH 2012.

The VTD together with the Lithuanian Embassy in Minsk also held a tourism business mission on April 12.

Despite the economic difficulties in Belarus, in 2011 Lithuania received a total of 368,000 Belarusian tourists, a 26 percent increase year-on-year. Therefore, all interested parties are paying more attention to future cooperation opportunities.

Tourism business mission in Lithuanian Embassy in Minsk was attended nearly 60 tour operators, accommodation service providers, tourism information centres and representatives of shopping malls from Lithuania.

Director of the VTD Raimonda Balniene says that they were still pleasantly surprised by the success of the mission, even though the tread of growing number of Belarusian tourists in Lithuania has been very obvious during the recent years.

"Our neighbor country is first in terms of incoming tourists, therefore it is really important to maintain close relationship with local tourism business. The beginning of 2012 seems very promising," she said.