Regional context of domestic travel in Latvia
2019
Lingeberzins, E., Turiba Univ., Riga (Latvia)
Tourism is often considered as an opportunity for sustainable development, providing opportunities in job creation, rising awareness of cultural heritage and stimulating local economies via service exports. While much of scientific and applied research is targeting international tourism in the context of service exports, current evidence shows that international tourism does not provide equal opportunities for all regions and tourism places. Therefore, current tourism studies suggest paying attention also to domestic tourism that has been unnecessarily forgotten even. Topic is of a particular interest in developed countries where domestic tourism forms important part of all tourism transactions including overnight stays and revenues not to forget also positive social impact on regional development. Lack of comprehensive research does not allow proposing specific development strategies for regions and local municipalities. The aim of the research is to obtain comprehensive data about current domestic travel trends in Latvia. In order to fill this information gap, quantitative research with more than 1700 respondents has been completed. Research object is domestic travel habits. Results disclose strong presence of domestic tourism in Latvia, at the same time highlights need to address various challenges – among first to be mentioned is the large number of one day visitors, instead of overnight travellers, problems related to information access and local resident willingness to travel within region of their domicile. Results clearly demonstrate current situation as well as suggest activities to be performed by those involved in tourism planning and in execution, including tourism entrepreneurs.
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