Uncommon inconveniences for foreigners destroy the picture of Latvia and the tourism trade

It is not all dangerous with the tourism trade. Tourism is recovering after the gloomy covid interval, the variety of individuals serving in accommodations and different vacationer lodging exceeds two million, the share of tourism within the financial system is 4% or extra of GDP, 8-10% of individuals are employed on this sector. . Throughout Latvia, with the assist of European Union structural funds, in a single day shelters and campsites mushroomed after the rain. There are good presents in all points – pure, cultural and well being tourism.

Nevertheless, statistics or expressions on the web sites of state and native authorities establishments chargeable for tourism are one factor, however it’s one other factor while you come into contact with actuality, feeling in your see for your self what a neighborhood or overseas vacationer feels in Latvia when he has it. come and see our lovely land. By some means it occurred that not too long ago I’ve hosted some mates – overseas visitors – and I’ve been their information, displaying Riga, Jurmala, Ventspils and different cities . One, John, was a British citizen, a real Londoner from the working class, who had the flexibility to talk not solely the literary language, but additionally the slang – Cockney. A while later, it was Grigoriy, a US citizen, who was born within the USSR and emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1980. He is aware of English and Russian.

The primary fraud is already on the airport, the place a taxi to get to the middle of Riga prices nearly 40 euros. A extra observant foreigner notices that there are additionally buses that drive cheaper – for six or eight euros. Solely a really conscious foreigner learns that he may also journey a daily bus from the airport to the middle for 1.50 euros.

Popping out of the airport, a stranger sees an bold new constructing in entrance of him and asks what it’s. It’s troublesome to say that it’s a building throughout the framework of the challenge “Rail Baltica”, which might not be wanted for a very long time or in any respect, and there’s no readability about financing, options future engineering. That is why I am not saying something – I am saying that it is a constructing designed to develop the airport.

The highway to town is thru horrible potholes, however it’s also constructive that they’re being repaired. Friends see it and perceive it.

When driving round Riga and Latvia, there are hardly any indicators of valuables in any language aside from Latvian. As for the Russian language, it’s clear that there is no such thing as a place for the language of the aggressive nation, however there may be nothing for English both. The one nice exception is Ventspils, the place there are various indicators and they’re additionally in English. Nevertheless…

There are issues that, residing right here in Latvia, don’t come to my thoughts in any respect, as a result of we don’t come throughout them. For instance, an web connection. For these of us who’ve connections from native operators, there is no such thing as a main drawback, besides that some rural areas could not have a zone. Nevertheless, a foreigner has an enormous drawback with this – in each resort, cafe or wherever in Riga or elsewhere, he has to ask the service workers what’s the “Wi Fi” handle there, or search for the place it’s written. Even while you cross the road from one place to a different, it’s a must to press the keys once more and log in to a different connection. Latvia was, because it had been, and remains to be thought of one of many digitally well-developed international locations, however the entry of such addresses yesterday, is roofed with moss, which doesn’t give credit score to the nation. Each in Western Europe and even within the greatest cities of bloody Russia, individuals have entry to the Web with out issues – in cafes, parks, underground subways and wherever existence, not less than in city facilities. Wouldn’t it be troublesome to do the identical in Riga? Wouldn’t it be too costly?

It may not have occurred if everybody had considered it on the identical time – town, the Ministry of Financial system, the Ministry of Transport, the federal government as an entire, inviting operators and so forth. If the operators undergo from this, it could possibly be correctly compensated by telling them that on the finish of the day they might get extra from the vacationer nation. However nothing occurs – strangers final yr and the yr earlier than, in addition to now, should ask, like poor family, to disclose the key – the “Wi Fi” handle – and permit them to connect with do to him. The dearth of inter-agency coordination is apparent – every particular person establishment works in its personal area, however can’t agree on important points in a unified method.

We do not even speak about assets. They have an inclination to shut after darkish and the citizen of one other nation has to enter the inexperienced the place he could be seen by a video digicam and the police are there instantly to provide the punishment.

Iain, who loves lager beer, was horrified to find that he at present prices extra in Outdated Riga than in London for such a central institution – the place Piccadilly Sq. is. However there may be additionally a constructive factor – he recommends one of many forms of Latvian beer, which has a horse’s head on the label. “Horse Beer” is alleged to be the most effective on this planet.

There may be nothing to do there, as a result of Latvia has been shaken by horrible inflation in the previous couple of years – costs had been operating past the true demand. Now there is no such thing as a extra inflation, and horse costs will degree off. Perhaps?

Grigory used to work within the area of tourism in America. We entered Jurmala. It is the center of summer season! It is rather heat and it’s the center of the day. Nevertheless, we’re the one guests within the restaurant within the heart of Jūrmala close to the Dzintari live performance corridor. In Liedag, as in some winters, neither a trapper nor a swimmer could be seen. There are only a few of them. Desert. There are additionally no vacationer buses, apart from one with Lithuanian youths who behave aggressively. You possibly can nearly say that they take pleasure in disturbing the peace.

It’s comprehensible that no comparability could be made with the Soviet occasions, when in Dzintaros and Majoros you possibly can not discover a place to lie down on a towel, there have been as many individuals as ants, and free-lancers had been days from throughout the Union have come to. Jurmala, due to which there was extra urine than water within the Gulf of Riga. It can’t be in comparison with the time earlier than round 2008, when Russia had not but proven its aggressive nature and the connection with it was half good. Many vacationers got here from Russia, there have been festivals, however now that’s the previous.

In fact, Latvia wants to seek out areas to draw vacationers from the West – that’s clear to the horse.

The way to appeal to German, British, US vacationers; find out how to inform them that Latvia is price visiting, that they are going to see one thing particular right here?

There isn’t any reply to this but. There may be, in fact, an lively live performance life in Latvia, museums and a library, artwork nouveau heritage, enticing untouched nature, swamp trails, caves, cliffs and likewise the chance to get high-quality dental prostheses, however less expensive than in England or England. France.

There may be one other factor {that a} native Latvian may miss, however a foreigner will instantly discover. That is unbelievable and unbelievable for service employees in eating places. At an Asian restaurant in a grocery store, Grigory requested when the meals could be served final, and the waiter sarcastically replied that the meals is just not more likely to be prepared in a second. Grigoriy turned to the pinnacle of the waiters for an evidence, who defined that at the moment was a really troublesome day and that there have been many purchasers. After that, the identical waiter got here to the desk and expressed himself in a really aggressive tone: “So what? Complain? Did it get higher?”

I attempted to consolation Grigori that such excesses aren’t regular in Latvia…

However, the subsequent day, in one other place, the Caucasus kitchen, I needed to watch the waiter shout at Grigory: “What is going on on? What harcho or lyula kebab did you order? Wow, wow !”

Right here, my justification now not helped, and the visitor from a overseas nation took offense. In Riga, it appears to be widespread for the shopper to be inferior and he ought to be pleased if the service workers remembers his needs and would not give him one thing he did not order in any respect.

Maybe the issue right here is that eating places change their employees like socks, informal individuals who do not get a lot work as waiters, there may be additionally a scarcity of academic establishments that train skilled service or not less than primary norms of decency.

There’s a long-standing, however unsolved, drawback that many Latvian cities – Liepaja, Ventspils, Valmiera, Daugavpils – have an incredible cultural life, concert events, theater exhibits, fascinating occasions. Nevertheless, the final public transport ends already within the early night, while you can’t catch the final bus after the occasion. It will have an effect on each home tourism and the attraction of overseas vacationers. Would not it actually be doable to do that so that individuals would have the chance to return to Riga by evening bus or minibus later, for instance, if it begins at midnight or 11 pm? That is an apparent want, however it’s not considered in any of the towers of energy. It’s a primary requirement. Nevertheless, no single establishment can eradicate this nonsense. This will solely be executed if there may be cross-ministerial cooperation between cities and authorities ministries. As a result of there is no such thing as a such cooperation, there may be nothing.

There’s a lack of a strategic imaginative and prescient of tourism, whether or not it’s wanted, and whether it is wanted, what ought to be executed.

However there are additionally practicalities that no technique can clear up. Nobody establishment can be sure that waiters don’t behave badly, that the city has an web connection and, sorry, come.

Between Tallinn and Helsinki, ferries run like trams in Riga. Vilnius attracts increasingly more Poles, Germans and everybody. Can’t Riga and Latvia?

You possibly can, in the event you simply need to…