Although the Pandemic has put many Lithuanian travel plans on hold, this doesn’t mean they can’t experience the best the world has to offer. Every second weekend, Vilnius will be celebrating a foreign culture, and everyone is welcome.
The more I read and write about Vilnius, the more I want to go. It’s a stunning city, packed with history and with more than enough to keep the most demanding traveller occupied. But, it seems that even this is not enough for many of the cities residents; they like many people around the world, still have a craving for foreign cultures.
However, travel restrictions are making this very difficult. So, what can you do to address this? It’s quite simple, bring the world to you, and this is precisely what Vilnius has done!
Over the summer Lithuanians who miss travel and foreign culture can now experience all they can handle without leaving the country’s borders. Every second weekend, a world culture will be brought to Vilnius. As a taster, the city kicked things off with a weekend dedicated to Italian culture, and this proved to be an overwhelming success.
With the flavours, sounds and colours of Italy still permeating around the capital, its residents need to ready themselves for the next influx of culture with India, the USA, France, Spain, Germany and Japan next on the list.
Remigijus Šimašius, the mayor of Vilnius said: “Once again we take creative way to sustain the tourism during the global COVID-19 pandemic.”
“It is important to open the world experience to people who miss travel. That’s why we started this project. We want to provide positive emotions, such as the joy of travel and discovery of new cultures, in a healthy and safe environment”.
Remigijus Šimašius also went on to explain the success of the cultural weekend was a huge collective effort involving businesses linked to the hospitality industry, local communities and artists to name but a few.
“Businesses not only created unique special programmes and events for our project but also adjust their prices, making the services more affordable to local tourists,” – explained Inga Romanovskienė, director of the official tourism agency of the city, Go Vilnius.
“Quality hotels provide a unique opportunity to test their services. Thanks to railway, bus and parking operators, Vilnius becomes more open and easy to reach during these weekends”.
Inga was keen to stress how thrilled she was with the success of the Italian weekend. She told us the Venetian-carnival-themed performance in the artistic neighbourhood of Užupis and the Vespa scooters appeared to be the most popular attractions along with the concerts and Italian-inspired dishes served up by the restaurants.
Ensuring attendees were as safe as practically possible during the cultural weekend. The events were spread out around the city. This ensured that attendee numbers did not exceed recommended limits. Even with these extra measures in place, hundreds of people still joined guided tours and other events while observing all the necessary health requirements.
What’s next in Vilnius?
On June 19-21 Vilnius will invite with an Indian-themed weekend, with the USA-themed and French weekends following in July.
Read more travel-related articles in our dedicated section here.
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