The national tourism promotion agency VšĮ presented its activity report for the past year.Travel in Lithuania" notes that 2024 was an exceptional year for Lithuanian tourism. The country not only counted on continued growing tourist flows, but also enjoyed several prestigious international awards, which already help and will help attract even more travelers in the future.
"In the coming years, we will seek to further strengthen the image of Lithuania as an attractive tourism destination. We will pay special attention to the development of local tourism, aiming to create benefits for both regions and local communities. Also, one of the most important priorities will undoubtedly remain the promotion of inbound tourism - an area that significantly contributes to the country's economic growth," says Agila Barzdienė, Vice Minister of Economy and Innovation.
The culmination of the development of Lithuania's tourism sector last year was the awarding of two extremely significant international ratings to our country. One of the largest travel guide publishers, Lonely Planet, declared Lithuania the second best travel destination in the world and the best in Europe in 2025. A significant achievement was also recorded in the field of gastronomy - the prestigious Michelin guide awarded four of the country's restaurants with stars, a globally recognized quality mark, four with the Bib Gourmand label, one with the green Michelin star, and another 26 included in the list of recommended restaurants.
"Such ratings once again confirm that our country has something to offer even to the most demanding travelers. These achievements are the result of the focused work of the entire tourism community and proof that we are heading in the right direction," says Olga Gončarova, head of the Public Institution "Travel Lithuania".
You can find the full 2024 activity report of the Public Institution "Travel Lithuania" here.
Attention from media giants
"Our strategic approach to international communication has yielded excellent results - Lithuania's historical and tourist attractions have been presented to a foreign audience of millions. We are especially pleased that we have managed to establish valuable relationships with prestigious media channels that help shape the image of Lithuania as an attractive travel destination," says O. Gončarova.
Last year, the Public Institution "Travel Lithuania" organized 33 foreign journalist tours of our country, which resulted in 43 comprehensive publications. Together with the agency's reports distributed abroad, this allowed it to reach an audience of 98,5 million readers, who learned about our country from such prestigious publications as "Forbes", "The Guardian", "The Telegraph", "National Geographic" and others.
In 2024, the public organization "Travel Lithuania" implemented a total of 9 campaigns to increase awareness of Lithuania in foreign markets, which generated a total of 227,7 million impressions. 106 posts were published on social networks alone, which generated 24,6 million impressions and reached 6,8 million users.
As an example of particularly successful communication, the agency's head highlights traffic promotion campaigns carried out in seven target foreign markets on travel planning platforms. The result is 2520 additional foreign tourists who booked almost 17 overnight stays in our country and spent 231,8 thousand euros.
Relations with tour operators
Last year, old partnerships were also strengthened and new ones were established. Public Institution “Keliauk Lietuvoje” concluded a strategically important cooperation agreement with LOT to increase Lithuania’s awareness in the Polish and United Kingdom markets. In addition, 13 traffic promotion projects were implemented with such well-known tour operators as “Diamir”, “Tui Travel Star”, “Journaway” (Germany), “Responsible Travel”, “Exodus” (United Kingdom), “Avoris group”, TUI (Spain), “Amslav”, “Evaneos” (France), etc.
"Cooperation with foreign tour operators is one of the most effective ways to increase tourist flows to Lithuania. We are pleased that after the educational tours and contact fairs we organized, as many as a dozen new foreign tour operators have included Lithuania in their 2024-2025 programs," emphasizes O. Gončarova.
The agency participated in 9 international tourism exhibitions, where 626 business meetings took place. The prestigious contacts fair "Buy Lithuania" was organized, in which 24 foreign tour operators participated, 338 business meetings between Lithuanian tourism service providers and foreign tour operators took place. The "Baltic Connecting" business mission to long-distance markets was attended by 50 foreign tour operators, and 777 meetings were organized.
The basis for further growth
Active marketing actions of the Public Institution "Travel Lithuania" contributed to the further growth of foreign tourist traffic. During the 11 months of last year, Lithuania was visited by almost 1,4 million foreign tourists - 6 percent more than in previous years. Compared to the pre-pandemic period of 2019, a 75 percent recovery was achieved, when in 2023 this indicator reached 70 percent.
The largest tourist flows were recorded from Poland (138 thousand), Germany (126 thousand) and Latvia (106 thousand).
"We are particularly pleased with the growing tourist flows from new markets – the Netherlands (+141%), Belgium (+115%) and JAV (+29 percent). This shows that our experience in these markets is yielding tangible results,” emphasizes O. Gončarova.
She notes that this year the number of foreign guests in our country should increase even more, and a solid basis for this is provided by the inclusion of Lithuania in the list of recommended destinations by Lonely Planet and the ratings of the Michelin guide.
"Both the detailed inbound tourism survey conducted in 2023 and the European Commission data show that gastronomic experiences and discoveries are one of the most important criteria by which travelers choose holiday destinations. Therefore, Lithuania has gained another significant competitive advantage, especially since we now have the most Michelin-starred restaurants in the Baltic States," says the head of the Public Institution "Keliauk Lietuvoje".
Traveling around your own country is fashionable
The agency VšĮ “Keliauk Lietuvoje” implemented various marketing actions in the local market last year, aiming to encourage as many Lithuanians as possible to travel around their country. In 2024, two large advertising campaigns were implemented: a summer campaign, which reached 32,7 million impressions and 518,7 thousand clicks, and a winter campaign with 13,9 million impressions and 226,6 thousand clicks. 6 were also organized events in the largest cities of Lithuania – Beautiful, Klaipėda, Šiauliai and Vilnius, including the Tourism Day event with 4 tourism streets and the Adventur exhibition. During the year, 30 press releases and commentaries were distributed, 4 educational tours were organized for media representatives and opinion leaders, and the total number of publications in the Lithuanian media reached 1114 articles.
According to preliminary data from the State Data Agency, almost 2024 million domestic tourists stayed in Lithuanian accommodation establishments during the first 11 months of 2,5. This is 1 percent more than in the same period in 2023, when this number reached 2,43 million.
"We see that domestic tourism has not only recovered from the pandemic, but also maintains a stable high level. Currently, the flow of domestic tourists is a quarter higher than before the pandemic, which shows that Lithuanians are discovering and appreciating the possibilities of recreation in their country," says O. Gončarova.
The latest data from the public institution "Travel Lithuania" shows that as many as 71 percent of Lithuanian residents have traveled to the country at least once in the past year with an overnight stay. Two-thirds of residents also choose to spend their long annual vacation in Lithuania.
"It is especially pleasing that Lithuanians choose various forms of tourism - from peaceful relaxation in nature to gastronomic tourism, the popularity of which has almost doubled over the year. This shows that our country's tourism sector is becoming increasingly diverse and more adapted to the different needs of travelers," emphasizes the head of the Public Institution "Travel Lithuania".
According to research, the most popular activities when traveling remain outdoor recreation and visiting natural attractions – both activities are chosen by 43 percent of travelers. Also popular are dining establishments (40 percent) and visiting cultural attractions such as museums, castles, and manors (30 percent).
