Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Germany with 44% of the total in 2004. Next
come Finland and France with 9%, Sweden
6%, USA 5%, Britain and Estonia 4%, Den-
mark 2% and other countries 17%. The dura-
tion of foreign travellers' stays in rural tourist
accommodation establishments is longer than
that of local travellers, in 2004 averaging 2.73
days compared to 1.28 days (Central Statistical
Bureau of Latvia, 2004b).
Many rural tourism accommodation estab-
lishments have been improving the quality of
their services in order to meet the necessary
requirements for a 'green certificate' (environ-
mentally friendly housekeeping). This is pro-
moted by the rural tourism association Lauku
Ce
k
ot
a
js ('Countryside Traveller'), the Environ-
ment Protection Fund of Latvia and by rural
tourism enterprises within the EU Life pro-
gramme project. The work of Lauku Ce
k
ot
a
js
includes educational and marketing activities
and the creation of a collective booking system
for the rural tourism accommodation establish-
ments in the Baltic States (Lauku Ce
k
ot
a
js,
2004).
Fig. 14.4.
Latvia tourism logo and motto.
●
production of informative material about
tourism possibilities in Latvia in different
foreign languages;
●
information about tourism possibilities
in the mass media and an internet portal;
●
the organization of workshops for (poten-
tial) entrepreneurs;
●
the organization of tour operator and jour-
nalist visits;
●
2005 marketing campaigns for the inter-
national television channel CNN, in four
cities in France (Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon,
Strasbourg) during the festival
Etonnante
Lettonie
('Surprising Latvia') (Latvian Tour-
ism Development Agency, 2005; Reinberga,
2005; Urpena, 2005).
From a 2002 competition, the logo and
strapline for promoting Latvia, 'The land that
sings', was adopted to characterize the coun-
try's mentality and traditions, manifesting them-
selves in song and dances (Fig. 14.4). However,
it was not effectively employed in such special
events as the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest,
XXII Latvian Song Festival and XII Dance
Festival in 2003. This emphasized the need for
Latvia to work on strengthening its tourism
image and raising its visibility.
A future challenge in this respect is to com-
pete for the status of European Culture Heritage
Capital, which the ten 2004 EU entrants can
apply for from 2009-2019.
Growth of tourism marketing activities
The marketing activities of Latvian tourism
are stated in the annual Latvian Tourism Devel-
opment Agency (LTDA) action plan, but a
long-term marketing strategy has not been elab-
orated as it has been, for example, in Lithuania.
A Latvia tourism basic development guideline
2004-2008 identifies the main problems:
lack of tourism marketing strategy, insuffi-
cient promotion in domestic and inter-
national markets, and insufficient
coordination of joint marketing activities;
●
a poorly defined tourism product;
●
frequent changes of leaders and employees,
often determined by political factors, con-
straining longer-term views; a change of
government is often followed by a change
of LTDA management.
●
Tourism Product Development
The origins of tourism development began in
the 19th century when Latvia was part of the
Russian Empire. As in many other places in
Europe, this was based on curative tourism,
especially emphasizing sea baths and air, min-
eral water spas and mud baths. The number
of
The main marketing tools are:
participation in international fairs (15 fairs
in 10 countries in 2003, 17 exhibitions
in 12 countries in 2004, 23 exhibitions in
14 countries were planned for 2005);
●
holidaymakers increased
each
year
until
