This year Vilnius greeted its millionth tourist even earlier than last year!

Vilnius solemnly welcomed its millionth tourist of this year. The fact that a solemn welcome of the millionth tourist, which has become a tradition by now, was celebrated more than two weeks earlier than last year, is a sign showing that the number of visitors to the capital city has been growing.

The Estonian Christian Veske living in Germany became the millionth tourist. He came to Vilnius together with his wife Margit and daughter Saara Salme for a week. During his stay, C. Veske will engage in business, while his family will enjoy the Christmas capital of Lithuania.

“I have never won any lottery, thus I did not expect anything like that. This is fantastic! – C. Veske shared his impressions. We will definitely visit Vilnius once again.”

“Please accepted our greetings for being the millionth visitor to the capital city! We wish you pleasant experiences during the time spent in our beloved city and we are looking forward to your return”, said Inga Romanovskienė, Director of the Vilnius City Tourism and Business Development Agency “Go Vilnius”, when presenting the millionth visitor with a git – a weekend trip to Vilnius, a stay at Kempinski Hotel Cathedral Square and an excursion to the most beautiful and spectacular places of the capital city.

“We are happy that Vilnius is becoming increasingly popular among tourists each year and that this year we are able to congratulate the millionth tourist even earlier than last year. Our forecasts show that by the end of this year, there will be more than 1.2 million tourists having visited Vilnius, which is about 4 percent more than last year, – said I. Romanovskienė. – New large hotels and a museum will open up in Vilnius next year, and marketing instruments will be further enhanced; therefore we expect an even faster growth in the number of tourists.”

The upcoming year is expected to bring even better results for the capital’s tourism. To this end, huge efforts of the city and participants in the tourism sector have been taken. The plan is to have three new hotels (“Courtyard by Marriot Vilnius City Center”, “Ibis Vilnius Center” and “Hotel Pacai”) open in Vilnius in 2018. The opening of the modern art museum “Mo Museum”, which should become a tourist attraction centre and double the exhibit space of the Palace of the Grand Duchy, is planned in the fall of 2018. A Vilnius tourist fee, the collection whereof will start in July 2018, will give a strong impetus for increasing international competitiveness of Vilnius. The collected funds will be designated for increasing the awareness of the city, promoting conference tourism, improving the accessibility of the international city and attractiveness of touristic Vilnius.

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“Go Vilnius” previously reported that compared to the previous year, there were 7 and 5 percent more tourists visiting Vilnius in Q1 and Q2 of 2017, respectively. The reconstruction of the Vilnius Airport carried out in the summer of this year was forecasted to reduce tourist flows by about 20 percent, however, according to statistical data on accommodation services of Q3 of 2017, the impact of the closing of the airport was lower than expected: the number of tourists to the capital city decreased by a mere 2 percent in July – August compared to the same period of 2016.