Accommodation establishments in Estonia received a total of 265,000 guests in May 2023, which was 7% more than in the same month of 2022, according to data from Statistics Estonia, ERR reports. The number of foreign guests totalled 141,000, which was 21% more than a year earlier. The number of tourists from Finland amounted to…
Latvia’s Riga International Airport (RIX) served over 3 million passengers in the first half of 2023, which was nearly 40% more than in the same period of 2022, LSM reports. Transit passengers accounted for 21% of the total, which was up from 17% a year earlier. The average load factor of passenger aircraft stood at…
Lithuania’s President, Gitanas Nauseda, called for revising existing national sanctions laws to impose stricter entry restrictions on Belarusian citizens, LRT reports. Speaking in an interview with BNS, Nauseda cited concerns over the potential presence of mercenaries from Russia’s private military company, Wagner Group, in Belarus. Parliamentary speaker Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen argued that there was no need…
The European Commission has approved a financing package of EUR 305mn from the Connecting Europe Facility for transport infrastructure projects in Latvia during the 2021-2027 financial period, the Ministry of Transport announced, Baltic News Network reports. The ministry will allocate the funds to several key initiatives, including EUR 298mn for the Rail Baltica railway project,…
Estonian shipping company Tallink Grupp carried a total of 1,541,081 passengers in the second quarter of 2023, which was down 0.7% from 1,552,174 in the same period of 2022, The Baltic Times reports. The drop was mostly due to the fact that the company has chartered out 7 of its 15 vessels. Tallink transported 85,359…
Latvia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced the resumption of limited acceptance of visa applications from Russian citizens at Latvian diplomatic and consular missions abroad, LSM reports. The decision comes after the suspension of all visa applications from Russian citizens in response to the Wagner Group mutiny in Russia. Visa applications will now be accepted…
Around half of Estonian residents plan to go on vacation abroad in summer 2023, according to a survey by insurance firm If Kindlustus, BNS reports. Around 20% of respondents intend to go on vacation in a neighbouring country, while some 25% will travel farther away, including 7% to a holiday destination outside Europe. Meanwhile, 41%…
The EU Affairs Committee of the Estonian parliament, the Riigikogu, has approved Estonia’s position on the introduction of digital travel documents in the EU, ERR reports. The committee supports the introduction of digital passports and ID cards. Committee deputy chair Maria Jufereva-Skuratovski of the Estonian Centre Party (Keskerakond) said that digital travel documents would accelerate…