Tourism Department

Awarded with the title of the Business Ambassador 2014 at the Lithuanian Business Confederation Awards, Egidijus Meilūnas, the Ambassador of Lithuania in Japan, states that tourism is one of the most promising areas for developing relationship between Lithuania and Japan.

After opening the Embassy of Israel in Vilnius, joining the euro zone and being chosen by the Lonely Planet as one of the world's top tourist attractions, Lithuania is becoming more accessible and welcoming to Israeli tourists.

Last year, almost each Lithuanian at least once was touring in Lithuania - during 2014 a total of 2.6 million travels of Lithuanians in the country was counted, by 2.3 percent more than in 2013, the State Tourism Department (VTD) said.

Lithuania has recently received much attention in the international press: it has been named among top places to visit by publications like Forbes, Business Insider and the Huffington Post.

Jurgita Kazlauskienė has been selected to head the State Tourism Department (VTD). Up until now, she worked as the deputy president of the European Spas Association, also led the Lithuanian Spas Association.

The State Tourism Department has issued written warnings to 38 travel agencies because they do not meet a provision of the Law on Tourism requiring to keep equity capital of at least half of a company's authorised capital.

On Wednesday the Government approved the proposal of the Ministry of Economy to obligate the State Department of Tourism to establish licensing procedures for travel agencies.

Lithuania's Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius has set up a task force that would coordinate efforts to manage a possible outbreak of the Ebola virus, if needed.

As yet another tourism company unexpectedly terminated its activities on Friday, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė says that the State Tourism Department (VTD) has not learned from its mistakes of the past, while the competence of the institution's heads is very questionable.

The Lithuanian State Tourism Department on Friday suspended the license of Fresh Travel after the travel agency, operating under the brand Plius Travel, had informed the authority that it was unable to meet its obligations.

The biggest Facebook's LIKE symbol will be lit in Lithuania's southern resort of Druskininkai on Friday and a symbolic capsule will be buried to mark the start of the construction of a cable car.

The number of Russian tourists in Lithuania is on a sharp decrease, the commercial TV channel LNK reported on Saturday. According to the news broadcast, forecasts are very dim for Christmas and the New Year's Eve, periods that would normally attract large flows of Russians to Lithuania.

For the last 10 years Vitalijus Milkovas has been working as a tour guide for Japanese groups - he says that visitors from Japan are most impressed by the Lithuanian nature, especially its wide horizons.

This Friday in Kiev, the State Tourism Department of Lithuania (VTD) and the Lithuanian Embassy in Kiev are promoting tourism to Lithuania. Representatives of Ukrainian travel agencies that are already working with Lithuania and new ones will be taking part in the presentation.

In the first half of this year, over 113,000 tourists from Russia came to Lithuania, which accounts for the biggest share all markets of Lithuania's inbound tourism.

More than 100 representatives of Russia's national and local media have visited Lithuania this year at the invitation from the State Tourism Department.

Lithuania’s State Tourism Department does not take responsibility for the collapse of Go Planet Travel, a tour operator that embezzled the money of nearly 1,000 customers, since the regulator’s mandate does not include monitoring credit bureau’s data about the financial situation of tourism companie...

Besides the notorious travel agency Go Planet Travel, a high risk of bankruptcy hovers above several dozens of other Lithuanian tour operators and travel agencies, the risk management solutions company Creditinfo Lithuania has warned.

Travel agency Go Planet Travel’s insolvency will affect some 900 tourists, but officials are taking steps to resolve the situation, announced the director of the Lithuanian State Tourism Department.