Three decades of post-Soviet period: analyses of outbound tourism development patterns and environment in Latvia

Abstract

After regaining independence, the borders were opened for Latvian residents, and they had the possibility to leave behind the travel or non-travel principles of the Soviet Union period, as well as go into the global tourism market. Post-Soviet transformation that was seen in different sectors, including the change in tourism and travel habits, which happened slowly. Since every decade of these three post-Soviet decades has its own development characteristics and is impacted by different external environment elements, the aim of this study is to analyse the tendencies of each decade and its most impactful external environment factors in Latvia. Even though the impact of the economic environment has always been meaningful in tourism, the main factor that impacted the first post-Soviet decade was without doubt the political environment. With the start of the 21st century and the improvement of the economic situation, world’s technological achievements enter Latvia’s tourism industry. Different sociocultural factors highlight different outbound tourism tendencies in each decade. Travel habits of Latvian residents have changed over time – values and expectations have changed for travelling abroad. As expectations and knowledge increase, Latvian travellers join the tendencies and travel habits of the collective European travellers.