Lithuania Travel: 2024 brought prestigious awards and growing tourist flows
In its annual activity report, the national tourism promotion agency Lithuania Travel noted that 2024 was an exceptional year for tourism. In addition to growing tourist flows, the country also rejoiced over receiving multiple prestigious awards, which are already helping it attract more travellers – and will continue to do so in the years ahead.
“Next year, we’ll be working to further boost Lithuania’s image as an attractive destination for tourism, giving special attention to the development of local tourism, geared to benefit regions and local communities alike. Efforts to encourage inbound tourism, which has been contributing substantially to economic growth in the country, will remain among our top priorities,” said Agila Barzdienė, Vice Minister of the Economy and Innovation.
Efforts to develop the Lithuanian tourism sector last year culminated in two especially significant international awards. Lonely Planet, a major travel guide publisher, acknowledged the country as 2025’s best travel destination in Europe – and second-best in the world. Another momentous victory was scored by Lithuania’s restaurant sector – as many as four local restaurants were granted a Michelin star, another four received the Bib Gourmand award, one restaurant earned the prestigious organisation’s Green Star, and a further 26 made it into the Michelin Guide.
“These awards prove once again that our country has something to offer even to the most exacting of travellers. They are the products of joint efforts made by the entire tourism community, and evidence that we are on the right track,” said Olga Gončarova, General Manager of Lithuania Travel.
The full report of Lithuania Travel for 2024 is available here (Lithuanian only).
Media giants are taking notice
“Our strategic approach to international communication has yielded some excellent outcomes – Lithuania’s historical and tourist attractions were introduced to a foreign audience. We’re especially pleased to have established valuable connections with prestigious media channels that will help us shape the country’s image as a winning travel destination,” O. Gončarova related.
Last year, Lithuania Travel organised multiple country tours for 33 foreign journalists, which resulted in 43 comprehensive publications. Taken together with the agency’s communications abroad, this allowed it to reach an audience of 98.5M, which learned about the country from such prestigious publications as Forbes, The Guardian, The Telegraph, National Geographic, and others.
In 2024, Lithuania Travel implemented 9 awareness-raising campaigns about Lithuania in foreign markets, generating 227.7M views in total. As many as 106 posts were made on social media alone, soliciting 24.6M views and reaching 6.8M users.
As examples of especially successful communication, the agency’s head singled out its travel-promotion campaigns in target markets abroad, implemented via trip planning platforms. These resulted in 2,520 extra foreign tourists who booked almost 17,000 overnight stays and spent €231,800.
Relationships with travel agencies
Last year also saw efforts to consolidate old, and establish new, partnerships. Lithuania Travel signed a strategically vital cooperation agreement with LOT to raise the country’s profile in the Polish and UK markets. In addition, it had implemented 13 initiatives to promote tourism with such prominent travel agencies as Damir, Tui Travel Star, Journaway (Germany), Responsible Travel, Exodus (United Kingdom), Avoris Group, TUI (Spain), Amslav, Evaneos (France), and others.
“Collaboration with foreign travel agencies is one of the most effective ways of boosting inbound tourism. We are pleased that our efforts in organising educational tours and participating in B2B matchmaking have resulted in as many as a dozen new travel agencies including Lithuania into their programmes for 2024-25,” emphasised O. Gončarova.
Lithuania Travel took part in 9 international tourism fairs, which included 626 business meetings. It was also behind the prestigious networking event Buy Lithuania, which was attended by 24 foreign travel agencies, and facilitated 338 business meetings between Lithuanian travel service providers and foreign travel agencies. Baltic Connecting - a similar event meant for long-haul markets was attended by 50 foreign tour operators and featured 777 meetings.
Foundation for further growth
Lithuania Travel’s active marketing initiatives contributed to the further growth of foreign tourist flows. During 11 months of 2024, Lithuania was visited by almost 1.4M foreign tourists – 6% more than in the year prior. Compared to the pre-pandemic period of 2019, this represents a 75% recovery, whereas in 2023 this indicator stood at 70%.
The largest tourist flows came from Poland (138,000), Germany (126,000), and Latvia (106,000).
“We are especially happy about the growing tourist flows from new markets: the Netherlands (+141%) and the U.S. (+29%). This shows that our work in these markets is beginning to bear fruit,” emphasised O. Gončarova.
She also noted that 2025 should see even larger numbers of foreign visitors. A strong foundation for this was laid by Lithuania’s inclusion in Lonely Planet’s list of recommended destinations and the Michelin awards.
“Both our comprehensive inbound tourism study conducted in 2023 and the data provided by the European Commission show that culinary experiences and discoveries are major criteria in decisions regarding vacations. This means that Lithuania has gained another powerful competitive advantage, especially considering that we now have the most Michelin-grade restaurants in the Baltics,” rejoiced O. Gončarova.
Home country travel is in style
Last year, to encourage as many Lithuanians as possible to travel in their home country, the agency also implemented a variety of marketing initiatives in the local market. 2024 saw two major advertising campaigns: a summer campaign that garnered 32,7M views and 518,700 clicks, and a winter campaign that generated 13.9M views and 226,600 clicks. Lithuania Travel also organised 6 events in the country’s major cities: Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai, and Vilnius, including the event on the World Tourism Day, with a “Tourism street” in the 4 cities, and the ADVENTUR Exhibition. Throughout the year, the agency published 30 press releases and media commentaries, and organised 4 press tours for top-tier media representatives and opinion leaders. The total number of publications in the Lithuanian media reached 1,114.
According to preliminary data provided by the State Data Agency, during 11 months of 2024, Lithuania’s accommodation establishments received nearly 2.5M local tourists, which is 1% more than during the same period in 2023 (2.43M).
“After the pandemic, local tourism didn’t simply recover, but has stabilised at a high level. The flow of local tourists is currently 25% larger than before the pandemic, which shows that Lithuanians are discovering and appreciating recreational opportunities in their home country,” said O. Gončarova.
The agency’s latest data shows that, last year, as many as 71% of Lithuanian residents took an overnight trip in the country at least once. Furthermore, two-thirds of the polled residents also choose to spend their long annual vacations in Lithuania.
“What’s especially encouraging is the fact that Lithuanians are coming to appreciate variety – from calm recreation in nature to culinary tourism, which has almost doubled in popularity in 2024. This suggests that our tourism sector is becoming increasingly diverse and better-equipped to meet the needs of different travelers,” stressed O. Gončarova.
Research shows that recreation in nature and visiting natural attractions remain the most popular travel activities, each being chosen by 43% of vacationers. Other popular activities include visits to catering establishments (40%) and cultural objects like museums, castles, and manors (30%).