Hotels in Jūrmala reduce prices as New Wave festival passes by

Take note – story published 8 years ago

The New Wave pop music festival, held in Jūrmala from 2002 to 2014, has moved to Sochi due to the political climate (and a few of the artists being barred from entering Latvia). That's why hotel reservations in Jūrmala have become much cheaper on the dates when the festival was to be held. On average, the prices are two times cheaper than last year, but in some cases it's evident that hotels had overcharged for 7 times when the city was "on the wave".

A few years ago, people who wanted to visit Jūrmala at the height of the New Wave contest, lamented that the cheapest room in Jūrmala cost about 200 euros.

According to the journal IR, a night at the last-available economy room in a hotel hosting the most famous guests cost 1860 euros a night in 2012. The same room cost 121 euros after the festival had ended in August. 

The same situation holds true for cheaper rooms, some of which were about 40% cheaper a week to the contest. 

The number of Russian tourists has decreased for about 15%, Kristīne Štāla from the Jūrmala SPA hotel said. However, due to increases in European tourist numbers, the real drop in revenue is expected to be about 10%.

A look at Booking.com showed that most hotels are booked almost fully for July and August. For example, a July 26 was fully booked for 24 of the 37 hotels available on the website.

Other businesses in Jūrmala, such as restaurants, are seeing fewer guests. For example, Aleksandrs Guseinovs of the restaurant Orients said that this year will be a bit more quiet, but that remains to be seen as the numbers are wrapped up in late July.

Despite fewer tourists from Russia, the number of visitors to Latvia has actually increased, but that may be connected with Latvia's EU Presidency.

The New Wave contest had brought an estimated 14 to 20 mln euro of capital to Latvia, according to estimates of the Mayor of Jūrmala Gatis Truksnis.

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