VILNIUS, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- A total of 1.49 million foreign visitors arrived in Lithuania and stayed at least overnight in the country in 2016, up 9.4 percent year on year, Lithuania's State Department of Tourism announced on Monday.
According to official data, local tourism increased by 10.2 percent, with 1.26 million local residents traveling within the country and staying overnight in Lithuania's accommodation establishments last year.
Overall tourism market growth, based on the number of guests and overnights in Lithuania's accommodation establishments, amounted to 9.8 percent, compared with 5.9 percent growth in 2015, the Tourism Department said in its press release.
"Lithuania's tourism growth rates are more than double compared to European average. According to preliminary data from European Travel Commission, tourism growth in Europe amounted to 5 percent in 2016," Rasuole Andruliene, Tourism Development chief, was quoted as saying in the statement.
She underlined the importance of increased local tourism.
"Purposeful work of Tourism Department together with businesses and airports, indicating the priority markets, lead to a good result," Evalda Siskauskiene, the head of Lithuania's Association of Hotels and Restaurants, was quoted as saying by local website vz.lt.
The leading three markets of Lithuania's inbound tourism were Germany, Belarus and Russia. Flows of visitors from Ukraine, Poland, Latvia and Estonia also increased significantly.
A 19.6 percent increase of visitors last year was recorded from France, one of the priority inbound tourism markets of Lithuania.
Among the long-distance priority markets, 25.3 percent increase of guests was recorded from both Israel and China, 7.5 percent from Japan, 6.9 percent from the United States.
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