Latvia’s tourism export reached €1.39bn in 2025, up 9.9% from 2024 and 53.6% above the pre-pandemic level of 2019. The figure is based on the balance-of-payments item “travel”, which measures foreign travellers’ spending in Latvia, excluding international transport costs. In other words, this is not the number of tourists, but the money they leave in the Latvian economy.
Data card: money side
| What it shows | 2025 signal |
|---|---|
| Foreign travellers’ spending in Latvia | €1.39bn |
| Recovery vs 2019 | +53.6% |
| Role in Latvia’s services exports | 16.9% |
| Travel balance | +€110mn |
The money side has recovered strongly. Tourism again works as a visible export sector: foreign visitors spent more in Latvia than Latvian residents spent abroad, leaving a positive travel balance of €110mn.
Data card: volume side
| What it shows | 2025 signal |
|---|---|
| Foreign travellers using Latvian accommodation | 1.7mn |
| Compared with 2019 | -14.1% |
| Foreign guest nights compared with 2019 | -20.1% |
| Domestic guest nights compared with 2019 | +14.6% |
| Platform-booked guest nights | 2.05mn |
The volume side tells a different story. Hotels and other tourist accommodation still have not fully recovered the pre-pandemic foreign visitor flow. At the same time, domestic tourism has grown, and short-term rentals booked through platforms such as Booking, Airbnb and Expedia have expanded sharply.
Context: Latvia’s tourism recovery is therefore not just a return to the old model. The sector earns more money than before the pandemic, but with fewer foreign accommodation users and fewer foreign guest nights than in 2019. This points to a changed tourism structure: higher spending, stronger local demand, and a bigger role for platform-based accommodation.
Source: Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia, Tourism Statistics Update 2026, data for 2025.