With its beautiful
renaissance old town, its exceptional Art nouveau heritage, its vibrant art scene, the proximity of the Baltic Sea beaches, Riga is emerging as one of the most appealing destinations in Europe for a city break.The Latvian capital welcomed 1.53 million guests in tourist accommodation in 2025, up 7% from 2024. Foreign visitors accounted for 1.20 million, also up from 1.14 million in 2024. Riga represented 72% of all foreign visitors staying in Latvia last year.
However, the latest national statistics show a more mixed start to 2026. Latvia recorded 1.197 million accommodation arrivals in the first half of 2026, down 0.4% year on year. Riga continued to dominate inbound tourism, receiving 72.1% of Latvia’s non-resident accommodation guests.
Against this backdrop, Eva Altenburga, Head of Tourism at the City of Riga’s tourism department, says the capital is seeing encouraging trends in several key European markets, while the United States is emerging as an unexpectedly strong source market.
Riga has more than 8,000 hotel rooms and over 16,000 beds, according to Altenburga. She says capacity is already sufficient and competition between hotels is strong, making Riga a good value for money.
Eva20AltenburgaEva Altenburga, Head of Department of Tourism, City of Riga (Photo: LC/Cleverdis)
How does Riga tourism perform so far in 2026?
Eva Altenburga: The first half of the year is improving compared with last year, which is good news. The markets that are improving most are the UK, which is one of our primary source markets, as well as our neighbors Estonia, Germany and the Scandinavian countries, particularly Finland.
What is a little unusual is that we are also seeing very strong numbers from the US market. That is something we will continue to monitor. Some of this US growth could also be connected to NATO activity.
Generally, our core markets remain Europeans. Numbers fluctuate from month to month, but compared with last year, the trend is encouraging.
Are there emerging markets that surprised you?
Eva Altenburga: South America is emerging as an interesting market. While China, Southeast Asia, the US and Canada were already established markets, interest from South America was limited. But in recent years, Brazil has turned strong, with growing demand for tourism materials in Portuguese.
Italy and Spain have also gained importance and are now core markets. Connectivity is key: when new flights or additional capacity are supported by marketing, we see results over time.
Riga20old20townRiga old town (Photo: LC/Cleverdis)
What are you expecting for the full year?
Eva Altenburga: Roughly, I would say we expect a total increase of up to 5%. That is relatively modest compared with the years before 2025. In 2022, 2023 and 2024, growth was sometimes 10% or 15%. The growth was almost exponential every year.
Last year it started to slow down, and that was already a signal. We don’t know whether we had reached a more natural level of growth or whether it was linked to the events taking place in our region, including information about drones landing on our territory.
What is affecting tourism most for now: higher airfares and fuel prices or concerns about security in the Baltic region?
Eva Altenburga: Tourism is always one of the first sectors to suffer. Last year, prices were not yet such an important issue. This year, because of the war in Iran and higher fuel prices, fares are also influencing travel decisions.
But I would say the geopolitical situation remains the main influence. The environment is more tense. For people who are not very familiar with our countries, information about threats to the Baltics can influence their decision very much. We know that this has affected tourism since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022.
It has also affected conferences and organized travel because the risk factor is there.
Latvia national carrier airBaltic is in financial difficulties. Is Riga concerned about its dependence on this specific airline?
Eva Altenburga: We all know that Riga is heavily dependent of airBaltic. At the moment, we are quite sure airBaltic is safe. There is no current threat that it could go under or that there could be major changes. The winter schedule and the schedule for next year are already published, so we do not expect disruption to the industry.
Meanwhile, I know that the airport is currently leading discussions with the government and the municipality about attracting new airlines, with support from the state or the city.
How has Riga’s tourism marketing changed?
Eva Altenburga: Culture remains very important. We support events that can attract international travelers because we know that these visitors are culturally motivated and educated.
But destination marketing is also about attractive ideas that make people who have never considered Riga think, “Maybe Riga is interesting.”
We all the time look at fresh and interesting ideas while promoting our real strengths. Riga is attractive at any time of the year. Our strength is to be a very compact city, where everything is within very short reach, including culture, architecture and events.
Sports have also become an important promotional tool. Major basketball, ice hockey and other sporting events bring people who might otherwise never have considered traveling to Riga.
Riga20art20nouveauAn example of Art nouveau building in Riga city center (Photo: LC/Cleverdis)
Do you adapt the message for different source markets?
Eva Altenburga: Yes. With limited funding and resources, we focus on what is most relevant to each market. Nature and bicycle tourism appeal to Scandinavians, while “coolcation” is increasingly relevant to Europeans seeking relief from summer heat. We promote Riga through ongoing digital campaigns and B2B events targeting tourism agencies and overseas media.
Finally, is Riga concerned by overtourism?
Altenburga: We are very, very far from that situation. Of course, there can be concerns about cruise passengers because they are one-day visitors. Our industry partners can sometimes have difficulties securing transport and guides when there are many cruise passengers. But apart from that, Riga is very far from overtourism.
Even in summer, Riga is not crowded, leaving room for further growth. Visitor numbers remain indeed around 83% of the 2019 record level. But we hope the Russian war in Ukraine and threats to the region end soon, allowing Riga to again be seen as a very safe destination. Riga is and remains a hidden gem in Europe.
Tags: Latvia Eva Altenburga Riga
