The Association of Hotels and Restaurants was established in Klaipėda

The founders of the new organization were one of the initiators, businessman Juozas Tubinas, who is also the president of the association, as well as Klaipėda Tourism Information Center manager Romena Savickienė, marketing expert Indrė Razbadauskaitė-Venskė and others. The Klaipėda Hotel and Restaurant Association has already gathered almost 50 members; the organization will operate on a public basis.

“I want to wish this organization to grow rapidly and bring together all Klaipėda hotel and restaurant entrepreneurs. All: both small and large, successful and less successful. The association will become a powerful center of competences and knowledge. The best and most effective ideas for the promotion of tourism in the port city will be generated and implemented here,” says one of the association’s founders, Juozas Tubinas, who manages several hotels.

Evalda Šiškauskienė, the president of the Lithuanian Hotel and Restaurant Association, who came to the founding event, was happy that the organization representing the interests of catering and accommodation services businesses in the port city will finally start operating in Klaipėda. “I would say that such an organization has been needed in Klaipėda for a long time. After all, we have an association in Palanga that has been successfully operating for a long time. At the republican level, our association is very strong, we actively solve our problems with legislators and executors. And associations in individual cities have the opportunity to closely resolve issues with self-government. This is especially relevant for the coastal region, which is still actively affected by seasonality”, says E. Šiškauskienė.

The president of the Lithuanian Hotel and Restaurant Association is convinced that hotel and restaurant businesses are facing serious challenges today. Before they had time to fully recover from the pandemic, they were overwhelmed by new troubles and worries. “The hotels are faced with foreign tourists not because they are lacking, but because they are practically non-existent. Foreigners are afraid of the threat of war in the Baltic countries. And the challenge for restaurants is increased VAT. Only three European countries have increased VAT for this sector, including Lithuania. I don’t want to be a bad harbinger, but the shadow may intensify, an avalanche of bankruptcies may appear,” says E. Šiškaukienė.

The president of the Palanga Association, Laura Taučiūtė, also became a member of the Klaipėda Hotel and Restaurant Association (KVRA): “I was very happy to receive the news that such an organization is being established in Klaipėda as well. I was born and raised in Palanga, and I remember those wonderful times of Klaipėda’s existence twenty years ago. Klaipėda is unique in its history, architecture, old town, and port. I believe that the members of the new association will stir the long-settled waters. Klaipėda is in dire need of changes, revival, and this can only be achieved through community.”