OREANDA-NEWS.  January 20, 2012. Latvian national airline airBaltic hosted 819 international journalists on media trips in 2011, up +21% compared to 2010. The airline’s industry-leading innovations and its main destination - the Baltic region - proved to be a big draw for media interest.

Jвnis Vanags, Vice President Corporate Communications of airBaltic: “The Baltic and Nordic region is our home market. Naturally, we want the world to learn more about this region as a destination, to attract more travellers, who spend their money in local hotels, taxis and restaurants and support job creation for the residents. In Latvia alone, the aviation sector helps to sustain almost 20 000 jobs in travel and related industries.”

airBaltic had 819 media visits,  and appeared in some 30 000 publications globally last year. In 2011, airBaltic received the Baltic PR Award: Gold for achievements in international communications and reinforcing the world’s attention to the Baltic region and the airline.

The media hosted by airBaltic represent different countries from all over the world with the largest groups of journalists originating from Germany (15%), Russia (17%), Sweden (6%) Finland, Denmark and UK (5%). They also represented Israel, Canada, Uruguay, USA, India, China, amongst other countries.  A number of tourism development organisations in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Scandinavia worked alongside airBaltic in co-hosting part of the media trips.

The media travelling on airBaltic and visiting its destinations represented many globally respected titles, including BBC, NTV, ORT, Sunday Times, New York Times, Independent, Air Transport World, Forbes, Neue Zurcher Zeitung, Handelsblatt, Yle, Vogue, Marie Clarie, Elle, Kommersant, Vedomosti, Tatler, Fortune, GQ, Esquire.

airBaltic serves 60 destinations from its home base in Riga, Latvia. From every one of these, airBaltic offers convenient connections via North Hub Riga to its network spanning Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, CIS and the Middle East.