University of Latvia conducts a study on travel habits of Latvian nationals living abroad

During the study, answers will be sought to the following questions: how often do Latvian nationals living abroad travel to Latvia, what is the purpose of travel, what places are visited in Latvia and which are the more popular tourist services, which information sources are most popular for obtaining information, how satisfied our fellow nationals are with their travel experience and others.

Latvian nationals and their descendants are invited to take part if they are firstly: 18 years or older; secondly, have been living outside Latvia for more than one year (or were born outside Latvia); and thirdly, have travelled to Latvia in the past three years.

"Latvian nationals and their descendants living abroad are an important sector of Latvia´s tourist industry. This has been conjectured from official statistics, as approximately one third of all tourists who visit Latvia indicate that their main purpose of travel to Latvia is visiting friends and relatives. Not all travellers in this category are necessarily members of the diaspora but the largest proportion is," explains Aija van der Steina, project leader and lead researcher at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology at the University of Latvia. "Although Covid-19 has halted travel and the current restrictions during the leadup to Christmas will force many to stay at home, we still invite you to take part in this survey and recall trips to Latvia and also allow yourself to dream about future trips."

The survey will help national, regional and municipal tourist organisations and businesses to better understand the travel plans and needs of our nationals living abroad, assist in improving and popularising what Latvia's tourism sector has to offer, will provide an opportunity to assess the contribution of this part of the tourist sector and its significance to the export of services.

For links to the survey in Latvian, English and Russian:

LV: https://aptauja.migracija.lv

ENG: https://aptauja.migracija.lv/en

RUS: https://aptauja.migracija.lv/ru

If you have friends and relatives who live outside Latvia, invite them to fill out the survey as well. More about the study https://migracija.lv/en/posts/2020-survey-on-tourism-to-latvia/

If you would like to reply in interview format (using Skype, Zoom, etc.) or if you have any questions about the survey you are kindly invited to contact our project leader Aija van der Steina. E-pasts: aija.vdsteina@lu.lv

More information:

Aija van der Steina,  Lead Researcher, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, University of Latvia

E-mail: aija.vdsteina@lu.lv