Tourism direct GVA (2024) | Tourism direct employment (2024) | Travel exports (2024) |
|---|---|---|
2.8% of total GVA (up 0.2 percentage points since 2023) | 4.5% of total employment (down 0.1 percentage points since 2023) | 8.1% of total service exports (up 0.2 percentage points since 2023) |
OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2026
National tourism strategy: National Tourism Pathway 2030
Responsible government agency: Ministry of the Economy and Innovation
National tourism budget: EUR 6.4 million (2025)
Key tourism policy priorities and actions:
Strengthening tourism competitiveness – Positioning Lithuania as a destination that promotes responsible travel while strengthening national promotion, investing in recovery and resilience and improving connectivity.
Providing a safe and secure environment for tourists – Strengthening emergency preparedness using mobile alert systems and clear communication protocols, including for tourists, and enhancing cyber security.
Improving international connectivity – Investing in air and aviation infrastructure to enable better connectivity with neighbouring countries and European hubs.
Lithuania’s tourism sector continues to build momentum as a driver of economic growth. In 2024, tourism directly contributed 2.8% to national GVA, or EUR 2 billion. Tourism also employed 49 400 people, accounting for 4.5% of the total workforce, an increase of 1% in the number of employees compared to 2023. Travel exports exceeded EUR 1.8 billion, or 8.1% of total service exports in 2024 and has surpassed travel exports in 2019 by 36%.
Lithuania recorded 1.5 million tourist arrivals at accommodation establishments in 2025, representing a 4.4% increase from 2024, when Lithuania welcomed 1.45 million tourists. The top international markets in 2024 were Poland (12.0%), Germany (10.6%) and Latvia (10.0%). Lithuania’s domestic market remained stable, with 2.7 million domestic overnight trips in 2024, an increase of 1.3% compared to 2023.
Responsibility for tourism in Lithuania is spread across three public bodies. The Tourism and Resort Development Division, Ministry of the Economy and Innovation, is responsible for tourism policy and international co-operation. Lithuania Travel, a public company established in 2019, conducts marketing and tourism promotion actions for international and domestic markets. Its main goal is to promote Lithuania as a tourism destination, developing inbound and local tourism in the country. The State Consumer Rights Protection Authority is responsible for the supervision of tourism service providers.
The Tourism Council, an advisory body of the Ministry of Economy and Innovation, was renewed in 2023. Its members include tourism-related ministries and tourism business associations, chaired by the Vice-Minister of Economy and Innovation. At local level, municipalities and Local Tourism Information Centres are responsible for tourism. The Chamber of Tourism of the Republic of Lithuania is the key tourism business organisation, representing 11 tourism business associations.
Source: OECD, adapted from the Ministry of the Economy and Innovation, 2026.
The national tourism strategy, National Tourism Pathway 2030, provides a guide for the collaborative development of Lithuania’s tourism economy until 2030. The Pathway, adopted in 2024, is centred on inclusive growth, regional promotion, and community engagement. It aims to ensure the systematic management of the tourism sector and to increase its competitiveness, transparency and importance as part of Lithuania’s economy. The Pathway builds on guidelines developed by Travel Lithuania in 2022 for the development of Lithuanian tourism. The guidelines call on the tourism community to implement measures across twenty-seven areas, including:
Investing in circularity and reducing water and energy consumption, waste and pollution, while better meeting the growing demand for sustainable tourism.
Increasing data sharing to enable the provision of new innovative tourism services and more sustainable management of tourist destinations, including through the National Tourism Information System (see box below).
Investing in skills to have sufficient numbers of qualified workers ready to take advantage of attractive career opportunities in the sector.
Lithuania is prioritising improving the competitiveness of the tourism sector and positioning tourism as a priority export sector. It is strengthening Lithuania Travel as a central tourism agency and promoting Lithuania as a responsible travel destination that values authenticity, manages tourist flows during peak periods, and champions lesser-known experiences. To better serve this market, the scope of Lithuania Travel will also be expanded to serve as the Lithuania Conference Bureau in 2026.
Lithuania is providing targeted support to tourism businesses to participate in international fairs, business events and exhibitions and to improve connectivity. The aim of this support is to encourage inbound tourism operators and associations to establish international contacts, implement joint initiatives, and foster co-operation by compensating expenses including travel, accommodation, event tickets, and registration fees. To be eligible, Lithuanian tourism associations must represent at least ten inbound tourism service providers (natural or legal persons), and be established for no less than one year prior to submitting the application. In 2025, EUR 114 000 was allocated to support businesses.
New air routes with major European hubs are being implemented to support the dispersal of tourism flows beyond urban centres. In 2025, Vilnius Airport officially opened its new departures terminal, doubling passenger throughput from 1 200 to 2 400 passengers per hour. Lithuania also significantly expanded its direct flight network across its three airports, especially during the summer and winter seasons. Compared to 2024, four new carriers were added with the number of direct connections increased, new destinations added, and existing routes strengthened.
Rail Baltica, a major European infrastructure initiative, also provides a key opportunity for increased connectivity. The project aims to integrate the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) into the European rail network. In 2025, Rail Baltica entered a phase of large-scale construction across all Baltic states. In Lithuania, the bridge over the Neris River - one of the most complex structures in the project - is progressing with advanced engineering solutions and environmental safeguards. In addition, a EUR 38.31 million design contract was signed for the strategic Poland–Kaunas connection, marking a major step in cross-border integration.
Lithuania actively leverages its expatriate community to become tourism ambassadors for the country. Lithuanians residing abroad are encouraged to share information about Lithuania and to recommend the country as a travel destination. In 2025, more than 6 000 members of the Lithuanian diaspora were reached through two major events: the World Lithuanian Sports Games held in Palanga, Lithuania, and the World Lithuanian Song Festival in Cleveland, USA.
AI provides unique opportunities for the marketing of destinations. Lithuania has already embraced this shift with the launch of its AI-powered travel assistant on the Lithuania Travel website. This innovative tool supports visitors with personalised recommendations, from top attractions and hidden gems to cultural etiquette, seasonal highlights, and local experiences. It allows travellers to plan their journey with ease, offering meaningful insights that reflect Lithuania’s heritage, nature, and lifestyle. Integrating AI into the marketing ecosystem has provided opportunities to modernise communication and create more personalised, efficient, and engaging interactions with travellers.
Lithuania is actively expanding education and training programs to develop a skilled workforce for the tourism sector. These initiatives include online learning platforms and professional development opportunities for tourism specialists. In 2025, 500 Lithuanian tourism professionals were granted access to study at the UN Tourism Online Academy, where they can earn internationally recognised certificates. Representatives of Lithuania’s private and public tourism sectors were able to choose from a wide range of courses, including business event management, innovation and digital transformation in the tourism sector, destination marketing, sustainable destination management, restaurant or hotel operations, culinary arts and gastronomy, and a teacher training programme.
Lithuania has continued to expand and improve the National Tourism Information System (NTIS) and organise training for accommodation service providers to ensure smooth data management and the collection of statistics. The NTIS now serves as central platform for managing and analysing tourism-related data. Specific elements of the NTIS include:
Accommodation sector data - the NTIS enables accommodation service providers to automate the submission of information about their guests and tourism statistics directly through the system, rather than manually via online or paper forms.
Visitor information - e. Turistas (e. Tourist) is a module of Lithuania’s NTIS, designed to collect travellers’ data and use it for both statistical purposes and to meet Schengen requirements. Currently, e. Tourist sends data exclusively to the national statistics agency and represents its primary source of tourism-related data. Additionally, the system integrates tourism flow data derived from mobile sources, offering valuable insights into travel patterns.
Near real-time visitor data – the NTIS includes data analysis and an interactive map to visualise visitor information based on anonymised mobile positioning data from mobile network operators into statistical insights. The data will be updated in real-time and be available for users approximately 1-2 weeks after collection.
Lithuania’s tourism resources – information is included on natural sites, landmarks, cultural heritage objects, and tourism services. This information will be available in open data format and will also allow tourists or tour operators create trips based on preferences and with the help of AI. A tourism infrastructure survey helps to assess how well municipalities are prepared to receive tourists and identify existing gaps.
All collected information is accessible via the updated Lithuania.travel website, which now features advanced tools for filtering and sorting data, visualising trends through charts, and creating personalised tourist routes or travel packages for tour operators. The Tourism Data Dashboard helps monitor the performance of the country’s tourism sector. The dashboard shows publicly available accommodation data provided by Statistics Lithuania, together with the sector’s employment and balance of payments in tourism companies. In addition, it presents data covering import and export of tourism services and outbound tourism data from other countries.
The NTIS has reduced the administrative burden for accommodation service providers, enhanced the quality timeliness of tourism statistics, and provided additional data to inform business development and decision making. This will hopefully lead to more sustainable tourism services in regions and prolonged tourists’ stays with a larger tourism input in the economy. In the future, Lithuania plans to expand the system’s functionality to include integration with the tax authority, tourist tax collection, and centralised licence issuing to improve administrative functions.