Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Development in the Baltic Coastal Region
Aušrin
h
Armaitien
h
, Ram
u
nas Povilanskas and Eleri Jones
Introduction
about 100 km of sandy coastline along the Baltic
Sea and in the Curonian lagoon offering the
best locations for coastal tourism in the whole of
the Baltic Sea region. Lithuania has five national
parks and 30 regional parks together with an
abundance of cultural heritage reflecting a rich
cultural history. Over 10,000 objects enjoy the
official status of a monument although only
about 350 are under the protection of the state
with a still smaller number developed as tourist
attractions. Perhaps of particular interest in rela-
tion to this chapter is Lithuania's centrality as
a European tourist destination with Vilnius
(Lithuania's capital) only 26 km south of Europe's
current geographic centre at 54
°
54'N and 25
°
19'E,
as commemorated by a 9 tonne boulder in
Europas Park, Bernotai in eastern Lithuania.
Lithuania's traditional markets have been its
neighbouring countries: Russia, Belarus, Latvia,
and Poland. As a consequence of German being
taught in Lithuanian schools, German-speaking
markets - Germany, Austria and Switzerland -
have also become important. Increasingly close
links with the West, and particularly associate
and later full EU membership, are seen as being
the key to an upturn in the number of incoming
tourists from other EU countries, particularly
Spain, France and Italy. Whilst the number of
foreign visitors to Lithuania decreased through
the late-1980s and in the first half of the
1990s, since 1996 the opposite trend has devel-
oped with tourist flows increasing each year
Following 50 years of Communist rule, Lithuania
had the distinction of being the first Soviet
republic to declare independence in 1990, join-
ing the United Nations in 1991, applying for
NATO membership in 1994 and getting full
NATO membership in 2004. In 1998, Lithuania
became an associate member of the European
Union (EU) and in 2003 signed the EU Acces-
sion Treaty, becoming a full member of the EU
on 1 May, 2004. Increasingly close ties with the
West have been extremely important in Lithuania's
economic development and, for example, have
widened opportunities to participate in inter-
national trade and tourism fairs, such as the World
Travel Market in London and fairs in Berlin,
Milan, Göteborg, Moscow and St Petersburg,
through which the Lithuanian State Tourism
Department and Lithuanian tourism companies
have been able to significantly broaden their
sphere of influence. Participation has been sup-
ported mainly from EU pre-accession PHARE
funds. The importance of EU funding and its
judicious deployment in supporting much of the
tourism development in Lithuania today can-
not be underestimated. EU support has enabled
Lithuania to build on strong tourism development
traditions to exploit an abundance of tourism
resources.
Lithuania enjoys a rich diversity of land-
scape
-
forests,
lakes,
rivers
and
notably
