Germany and Latvia happy about Eurobasket in Riga
by Alexander Welscher
It was one of the sporting highlights of the year: Concluding an outstanding tournament in Riga, reigning world champions Germany also won the EuroBasket 2025 title in a thrilling final. Supported by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who followed the game live in the Arena Riga together with his Latvian colleague Edgars Rinkevicš, the German team led by Dennis Schröder defeated Turkey 88-83 to secure its second continental title 32 years after the first in 1993. Herzlichen Glückwunsch!
While the championship was not so successful in sporting terms for Latvia – the national team lost to neighbouring Lithuania in the eighth round and finished the championship at home only in 12th place – the host nation earned praise for the organisation of the tournament that took place in Riga from 27 August to 14 September 2025 and contributed also to the Latvian economy. Hosting the Eurobasket 2025 had a positive economic impact and brought an additional 52.3 million EUR into the economy, according to a study carried out according to an internationally recognized methodology.
Over three weeks, more than 50,000 foreign fans arrived in the Latvian capital and boosted activity in the hospitality and catering sectors. Hotels, bars and restaurants saw a notable increase in visitors and revenues - and hope that some of the basketball fans might come back again even without their team playing in Latvia. How it is possible to attract more tourists especially from Germany and develop new types of tourism for them was also discussed by the German Bundestag's Tourism Committee that visited Riga on 23 October 2025 for meetings at the Ministry of Economics and Saeima.
New options for travelling to, from and within the Baltics
by Alexander Welscher
The long-promised express rail link between Estonia's second-largest city Tartu and Riga has finally been launched. Estonian rail company Elron has started regular service on the line on 12 January 2026 in cooperation with the Latvian passenger train operator Pasažieru Vilciens (Vivi), offering a roughly three and a half hour trip between the two cities. The train connection is initially operated once per day. It will depart from Tallinn from Tartu at 5.05 p.m. and arrive in Riga at 8.52 p.m. In the opposite direction, the train will depart from Riga at 7:40 a.m., arrive in Tartu at 11:25 a.m. The new Tartu-Riga service will run alongside the Tallinn-Riga-Vilnius rail link, which has been launched at the beginning of 2025. (add Link to BBQ story aus Spring 2025 zur Tallinn-Riga-Vilnius-Verbindung)
New options have also been added to the flight schedule. German low-cost airline Eurowings will launch a direct route between Tallinn and Düsseldorf in spring 2026. The Lufthansa-subsidiary will commence direct flights to Düsseldorf on May 1, according to an Tallinn Airport's representative. The flights will operate twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays, with a flight duration of two hours and 30 minutes.
Dubai-based airline flydubai has launched direct flights to Riga and Vilnius. Following the inaugural flights in mid-December, the low-cost carrier will operate a three-flight weekly service on both routes. The nonstop flights between the Baltic capitals and Dubai will take over six hours each.
Latvian airline airBaltic and Germany’s national carrier Lufthansa have announced the expansion of their existing codeshare agreement on flights between Riga and Frankfurt. Starting from 17 December 2025, Lufthansa has placed its LH code on airBaltic-operated flights between the two cities, while airBaltic placed its BT code on Lufthansa-operated flights on the same route. This will enable improved transit connectivity for passengers traveling via Frankfurt to onwards Lufthansa destinations, according to airBaltic.
