The Rezidor Hotel Group, one of the fastest growing hotel companies worldwide, announces a management agreement with the Norwegian real estate developer Linstow for 10 Reval Hotels in the Baltics (Latvia, Estonia & Lithuania) and in Russia. The agreement between Rezidor and Linstow will come into effect on June 1, 2010 and includes 3 hotels in Riga, 2 hotels in Tallinn, 2 hotels in Vilnius, and 1 hotel in each Kaunas, Klaipeda and St. Petersburg – adding a total of 2,367 rooms to Rezidor’s portfolio. 6 hotels will be rebranded as Radisson Blu and 4 as Park Inn.

“We are delighted and proud that Linstow, Reval Hotels owner, has chosen Rezidor as a business partner”, comments Kurt Ritter, President & CEO of Rezidor.

The agreement between Rezidor and Linstow, subject to regulatory approval, covers the following properties in Lithuania:

* Reval Hotel Lietuva in Vilnius/Lithuania (291 rooms, 17 meeting rooms) will become a Radisson Blu
* Reval Inn Vilnius in Vilnius/Lithuania (84 rooms, 3 meeting rooms) will become a Park Inn
* Reval Hotel Neris in Kaunas/Lithuania (206 rooms, 8 meeting rooms) will become a Park Inn
* Reval Inn Klaipeda in Klaipeda/Lithuania (84 rooms, 4 meeting rooms) will become a Park Inn

Origin  www.rezidor.com

Yellow line - regular

Blue line - charters

We are pleased to inform you that Visit Lithuania will participate at the MATKA 2010 Nordic Travel Fair in Helsinki on the 21-24 of January, 2010.
Nordic Travel Fair MATKA is the best travel fair to get contacts from the Nordic countries, the Baltic region, Russia. The theme of the fair will be “Travel as a Preserver of Culture”.
We will be represented at the stand 6e41.

We will be delighted to invite you to visit us and get acquainted with our wide range travel services in Baltic region.
Reliable, multilingual and professional team, high knowledge of local providers, tailor made conferences, events, tours and personalized service are the greatest advantages of our company.

For pre-booked meetings, please contact:

Justinas Bortkevičius
Tel.: +370 5 2625 241
Fax:  +370 5 2625 242
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Skype: visit_justinas
www.visitlithuania.net

Scandinavian airlines SAS  starts regular flights from Copenhagen to Vilnius International airport . SAS passengers between the capitals of Lithuania and Denmark shall be carried twice a day, and 14 times a week in total.
According to R.Jucienė,  the Head of the SAS representing company, after resuming flights to Vilnius airport, Scandinavian airlines shall further make regular flights from Copenhagen  to Palanga airport . Since 25 October, 2009, SAS has been making 19 flights per week to the Danish capital from this airport. Since 11 January, 2010, the Scandinavian airlines SAS shall make 33 flights per week from Copenhagen to Lithuania in total.

The flights from Copenhagen airport to  Vilnius  shall be carried out by new 88-seat „Bombardier” airplanes „CRJ900 NextGen“. It is the most efficient airplane model of its class which exhausts less carbon dioxide to the environment compared to other airplanes of this category. „CRJ900 NextGen” that shall fly to Vilnius airport, is much more convenient for passengers. New generation seats are mounted there in the cabin, the baggage cupboards above the passenger seats are bigger, the windows are wider, and there is a new lighting system installed.

Latvia’s national airline airBaltic is launching an Internet shop in December of this year – airBalticOutlet.com. Customers can purchase leading branded goods for lower prices, with delivery on board an airplane. The products include perfumery, cosmetics, accessories, sweets, and airBaltic and Latvian souvenirs. Tero Taskila, Chief Commercial Officer of airBaltic: “Shopping does not come any easier than this. We want to give our passengers a chance to choose branded goods for low prices. Perfumes, cosmetics and accessories, moreover, are a fine addition to the wide range of products that are available on the airBaltic homepage – www.airbaltic.com. All the products will be delivered to customers personally during their flights with us.”

Latvia’s national airline airBaltic is launching an Internet shop in December of this year – airBalticOutlet.com. Customers can purchase leading branded goods for lower prices, with delivery on board an airplane. The products include perfumery, cosmetics, accessories, sweets, and airBaltic and Latvian souvenirs.

Tero Taskila, Chief Commercial Officer of airBaltic: “Shopping does not come any easier than this. We want to give our passengers a chance to choose branded goods for low prices. Perfumes, cosmetics and accessories, moreover, are a fine addition to the wide range of products that are available on the airBaltic homepage – www.airbaltic.com. All the products will be delivered to customers personally during their flights with us.”

The products are available only to airBaltic passengers, and they can be purchased no later than 48 hours before the selected flight. When purchasing products at airBalticOutlet, passengers simply enter their flight reservation number on the Internet page. The products will then be delivered to the flight, which the passenger is taking.

This service is available to passengers who travel from Riga or via Riga. When transit passengers register themselves in the Internet shop, they simply enter the number of their flight from Riga.

The whole range of products can be seen on www.airbalticoutlet.com. It is also accessible from a link on the airBaltic.com page.

Copenhagen is the “greenest” major city in Europe, followed by Stockholm, Oslo, Vienna, and Amsterdam. This is the conclusion reached by a unique study of the environmental sustainability of 30 major cities in 30 European countries that Siemens presented during the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. In addition to analyzing these cities’ achievements and objectives in the area of environmental and climate protection, the European Green City Index makes the differences transparent. The study evaluates the 30 cities in eight categories: CO2 emissions; energy; buildings; transportation; water; air quality; waste and land use; and environmental governance.

Scandinavian cities generally achieve high scores. Awareness of environmental protection in these cities has been strong for years, which is reflected in the cities’ ambitious climate targets. Copenhagen, for example, aims to be carbon free by 2025. In Scandinavian countries, GDP per capita income is above average, and these wealthy countries have invested substantially in environmental protection. So far, Eastern European cities generally rank lower. This is largely due to a comparatively low gross domestic product and historic burdens, including the lack of attention paid to environmental protection in previous decades. In particular, high energy consumption in buildings and outdated infrastructures reflect this. In the area of public transportation, however, Eastern European cities often score above average: Kiev, which is ranked 30th overall, is estimated to have the highest percentage of people using public transportation to commute.

The scope of the European Green City Index is unique. The eight categories are based on 30 individual indicators — 16 of which are quantitative (e.g. consumption of water and energy per capita, recycling rate, and use of public transportation) and 14 qualitative (e.g. CO2 reduction targets, efficiency standards for buildings, and support for environmental protection measures).

Vilnius achievements according tothe results of cities analysis:
Vilnius has the best quality of air.
Vilnius took the ninth position in the category:waste and land use.