Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

Legal Basis for the Tourism in Lithuania Jolanta Vilkevičiūtė 1 1. Introduction; 2. Management and legal regulation sector in Lithuania; 3. Implementation of the provisions of the Directive 2015/2302; 4. Conclusions; References. 1. INTRODUCTION “Tourism – is an economic activity, which, first of all, promotes economic growth. However, in order to remain competitive in the transnational tourism market, it is important to support sustainable tourism development. The economic impact of tourism is very important; however, sociocultural impact has to be considered as well.” (The LithuanianTourismDevelopment Programme 2014-2020). In the twenty-first century tourism has become one of the most popular leisure activities. In Lithuania, as in the rest of the world, the growing number of tourists can be noted; consequently, the tourism sector is becoming a more and more important expanding economic factor and this is implied by the data provided by the Statistical Yearbook of Lithuania (2018): “In Lithuania in 2017, travel agencies and tour operators provided services for 180.3 thousand foreigners, 63.3 thousand of whom were same-day visitors, and for 406.7 thousand Lithuanian residents, 30.1 thousand of whom were same-day visitors. Compared to 2016, the number of foreign tourists whose trips to Lithuania are organised by travel agencies or tour operators increased by 20,2 per cent, the number of Lithuanian residents’ trips abroad increased by 36,8 per cent. Most of the foreigners using the services of travel agencies or tour operators arrived from Germany (26,8 per cent), Russia (7,7), France (7 per cent), and Italy (6,2 per cent). Lithuanians travelled the most to Turkey (22,8 per cent), Greece (10,5 per cent), Egypt (8,8 1 Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy.