Title Challenges of the tourism sector in Lithuania in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: State aid instruments and the efficiency of the tourism business support /
Authors Pociūtė-Sereikienė, Gintarė ; Baranauskienė, Viktorija ; Liutikas, Darius ; Kriaučiūnas, Edikas ; Burneika, Donatas
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Is Part of European Spatial Research and Policy.. Lodzė : Lodz Unversity Press. 2022, 29, 2, p. 235-270.. ISSN 1231-1952. eISSN 1896-1525
Keywords [eng] tourism sector ; tourism business ; COVID-19 pandemic ; state aid instruments ; Lithuania
Abstract [eng] At the beginning of 2020 Lithuania, and many other European countries, introduced quarantine and began restricting movement not only across the country's borders but inside the country as well. The imposed restrictive measures have greatly impacted and led to the stagnation of tourism sector. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and travel restrictions, the number of international tourist arrivals decreased by 73 percent in 2020 in Lithuania (Statistics Lithuania, 2022). Slightly better results of the 2020 summer months were due to the temporarily suspended quarantine in the country. During the summer, attempts were made to fill the losses of tourism business with local tourists and guests from the “Baltic Bubble” (an area of free movement in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia). Later, in 2021 the majority of restrictions have been eased due to the decreasing morbidity, but it did not reinstate the tourism into the previous level. According to preliminary data, the decline in tourist flows in Lithuania in 2021 still continued, albeit the decrease was smaller. The increase in the number of local tourists (especially in 2021) has somewhat compensated the loss of international tourism, but has not changed it. The tourism business is still going through a difficult period. However, it should be emphasized, that spatial disparities in accordance to tourism business appear and some Lithuanian regions perform better than others. This article emphasizes the issues of local and inbound tourism business in Lithuania. Whereas the general goal of the article is to present the situation of tourism business in Lithuania in the context of Covid-19 pandemic. As well the paper places a great attention on the measures that have been introduced by Government to mitigate the negative consequences of the pandemic on tourism service. The research combines secondary and primary statistical data sources. Secondary data are used for the analysis of official Lithuanian statistics in order to introduce the general trends of the development of tourism sector during the last decades. Whereas the primary data comes from the analysis of the questionnaires. The answers and insights to the questionnaire topics were collected form the representatives of tourism information centers and local tourism business companies. The responses allow to draw the picture of the tourism business situation in Lithuanian regions. The article includes not only an overview of the official instruments proposed by the Government to support the tourism business, but also underlines the opinion of the respondents about the expedience and effectiveness of these instruments.
Published Lodzė : Lodz Unversity Press
Type Journal article
Language Lithuanian
Publication date 2022