Latvia suffered a brief dip in tourism after 12,000 cubic metres of untreated sewage leaked into the Baltic Sea. Officials in the neighbouring state are blaming Lithuanian media for allegedly sensationalising the incident.
In July, a retaining wall collapsing at a water treatment plant led in Liepaja, in western Latvia, to sewage spilling into the Baltic Sea. Subsequently, swimming was banned in some of the Latvian and Lithuanian beaches.
Further reading
“The Lithuanian media created such a big storm, the headlines said not to go near the coast," Ieva Skābarde, director of the South Curonian Spatial Tourism Centre, told Latvian public broadcaster LSM.
She alleged that Lithuanian media reported the incident as a large-scale environmental disaster, leading to booking cancellations and a drop in tourism.
“There was more anxiety [...] from Lithuanian tourists because they thought that everything was bad,” she said.
Sintija Pusaudze, councillor of the Liepaja Regional Tourist Information Bureau, said that accommodation providers faced 18% more cancellations than usual.
According to her, tourist arrivals from neighbouring countries and Lithuania dropped by a fifth in late July.
Several days after the incident, no pollution was found in the water samples taken in Latvia, the country’s authorities said.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
