Every year we look back at what we have done before, analyze the data so that the next planned activities are based on previous data. The Tourism Board of the Valmiera Region has collected the 2022 regional tourism data on tourism attractions in the Valmiera Region, visits to the Valmiera Tourism Information Center, the regional tourism website visit.valmiera.lv and social media channels.
The beginning of 2022 began in the shadow of the restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic, but with a view to a brighter future. This is also reflected in the gathered data – in some areas, the same statistical data as before the pandemic have been achieved. At the same time, there is a greater demand for tourism information in digital form.
In relation to previous years, when the Valmiera Tourist Information Center (hereinafter Valmiera TIC) was open all year round, in the spring pandemic restrictions prevented an unlimited number of people from being in the premises. Also, compared to other years, the working hours of Valmiera TIC were changed in 2021, which had an impact on the flow of tourism visitors. Valmiera TIC served 3,500 guests in person, 291 were consulted in correspondence and 630 interested parties were informed by phone. Due to the impact of Covid-19 and the era of digitalization, it resulted in a 5.89% decrease in the number of visitors. It is only natural that the number of foreign visitors has continued to decrease. After the lifting of the Covid-19 restrictions, the flow of international tourism has resumed. Constant leaders among foreign travelers are guests from Estonia, who make up almost half (42.73%) of the total number of foreign travelers. Germany (114.29% increase compared to 2021), Lithuania and Finland (200% increase compared to 2021) are also among the countries from which travelers have more actively requested tourist information about the Valmiera Region. A big increase in terms of the number of requests for information is from England and from residents of Ukraine, but it is connected with the fact that more and more Ukrainian citizens are staying in the Valmiera Region.
The Zilākalns Cultural History and Visitor Center (hereinafter ZKAC) is a relatively new tourism offer in the Valmiera Region. The facility includes an industrial heritage – a water tower and its extension with a seasonal offer – rail bicycles, available from May to the end of October. In 2022, 2,580 visitors visited ZKAC (20.4% more than in 2021). In the month of May 2022, the Nature Protection Board installed a visitor flow meter at the Zilaiskalns nature facility. From June to November, 3012 visitors visited the natural object.
The role of digitization is growing more and more. The Tourism Board has worked actively, creating engaging content both on social media Facebook (14.4% new followers) and Instagram (8.2% new followers), and ensuring people access to current and engaging information on the website visit.valmiera.lv. An important aspect is that the visit.valmiera.lv homepage started operating in a new form as of July 4, 2022 and it is much easier to use on mobile devices, and includes information about the entire Valmiera Region, which was not included in the previous version of the page. Just like every year, the statistical data shows an increase in the number of visitors to the page (3.41%). The most active parties who visit and follow Visit Valmiera are from Latvia, Estonia and the USA.
Summing up the statistics of visitors to tourist facilities, in 2022 they were visited 3.6 times more than the year before. It should be mentioned that these data certainly do not reflect only guests, but also the number of visits, as there is a possibility that one traveler visited several places, and also probably visited the object in question several times during the year. It should also be noted that a large number of visitors have been local residents. Local residents of Latvia and guests from Estonia have visited tourism companies of the Valmiera Region the most, followed by travelers from Germany, Lithuania, France and Finland. In 2022, the largest proportion of the number of visitors is still made up of individual travelers, however, there are tourist attractions that have visitors in groups in the same proportion or even slightly more than individual travelers.
Information prepared by: Toms Treimanis, Head of the Tourism Board of the Valmiera Region, Mob. phone: +37128644530, visit.valmiera.lv