Riga is attractive in the international events market because it is a compact and diverse city that effectively highlights the advantages valued by event organisers and offers a wide range of hotels and event venues, ensuring the flexibility needed to adapt to different formats and numbers of participants. Riga’s cultural and historical resources, as well as a rich tapestry of leisure opportunities beyond the event programme, are also an important advantage, enhancing the global experience of visitors to the city.
This article will highlight Riga’s advantages as a destination for international events – its convenient accessibility, compact urban environment, experience in organising large-scale events and safe environment – as well as outline what hotels and event venues have to offer and present a brief price comparison between Riga and several Nordic capitals.
Convenient accessibility
One of Riga’s key advantages is its international airport, which provides air connections to more than 100 destinations worldwide, making Latvia easily accessible from various countries. The journey from the airport to the city centre is also relatively short, meaning that travel between the airport, hotels, conference venues and the historic centre of the capital does not take much time. In addition, Riga is also easily and conveniently accessible via the Baltic Sea by cruise ships, as the city has well-developed port infrastructure.
Hotels in central Riga – a wide choice and short distances
Central Riga is a strategically convenient location for accommodating visitors, as a wide range of quality hotels is concentrated within a relatively small area. Hotels are located within short distances of one another, while also providing convenient access to the Old Town, main tourist attractions, restaurants, cultural institutions and business infrastructure. This makes central Riga a particularly suitable choice for leisure travellers and business clients, as well as participants of conferences, seminars and other events.
Several internationally recognised and high-quality hotels operate in central Riga, with many of them also offering conference halls, meeting rooms, spa areas and other additional services that are important for corporate clients and organisers of larger events. An additional advantage is that, from hotels in central Riga, major event venues and sports infrastructure facilities are in many cases easily accessible on foot.
Riga – the perfect place for MICE events
Riga is a strategically suitable choice for organising MICE events. The business environment is increasingly seeking new destinations and diverse opportunities for carrying out business activities, and in this respect Riga offers a competitive and professional solution. Local companies provide a wide range of event venues and appropriate infrastructure, enabling corporate events of various scales and formats to be organised.
When choosing an event venue in Riga, it is possible to benefit not only from a modern and functional environment, but also from the city’s unique advantages – views of the Daugava River, historic parks, and the opportunities offered by its architectural, cultural and historical heritage. The city’s historic environment and dynamic development create a balance between tradition and modernity, making Riga a suitable venue for events with different themes and audiences.
Meanwhile, modern conference centres and event venues equipped with the latest technologies ensure high quality standards and flexible opportunities to organise both small working group meetings and large-scale conferences, forums and other events
Extensive organisational experience
In addition to its compact infrastructure, Riga also stands out thanks to significant experience and high capacity in organising large-scale events. Both international and national cultural, sporting, business and public events regularly take place in the city, demonstrating the ability of both the municipality and industry professionals to ensure high-quality planning, coordination and delivery of complex events.
This is clearly evidenced by several internationally significant events. For example, Riga, together with Tampere, hosted the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in 2023, while in 2025 Riga hosted the decisive stage of the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 tournament. Following the group stage games, Riga also hosted the Round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and medal games. The organisation of such events requires long-term and highly coordinated solutions to meet the needs of athletes, teams, delegations, fans, international media and security services.
Importantly, both of the aforementioned sporting forums took place in one of Riga’s main large-scale event venues: Xiaomi Arena. Its maximum capacity exceeds 13,000 visitors, facilitating not only the organisation of high-level sports competitions, but also concerts, exhibitions, shows and corporate events.
The city’s competence in managing the flow of international participants and visitors is further demonstrated by the Rimi Riga Marathon, which achieved record scale in 2025, bringing together more than 40,000 participants, including more than 6,000 international runners from 109 countries. Meanwhile, during the Latvian Song and Dance Festival in 2023, 40,560 participants took part in more than 60 events in Riga – with extensive urban environment adaptation and coordination implemented in line with the scale of the event. The main concerts took place at Mežaparks Great Bandstand, which can accommodate very large audiences and guarantees effective organisational management of events. This is confirmed by the venue’s regular use for high-attendance music events, clearly demonstrating Riga’s ability to provide infrastructure for commercially significant, large-scale concerts of international scale. The bandstand is designed to accommodate up to 50,000 visitors.
A safe urban environment
Riga is attractive to organisers of international events because safety, traffic and public infrastructure in the city is relatively clear and consistent. Latvia’s regulatory framework provides equal legal protection for both local residents and foreign visitors. The single emergency number 112 in Latvia is available free of charge, 24 hours a day, allowing emergency services to respond whenever life, health or safety is at risk, as well as in cases of fire, traffic accidents, chemical leaks or the discovery of suspicious objects. State and municipal services are involved in maintaining public order, while Riga’s safety infrastructure is also complemented by an extensive video surveillance network, a system that is continually developed in order to strengthen rapid response capabilities in the city.
Public transport and tourism information
Information about public transport is available in the Rīgas satiksme app, which provides real-time data, route planning options and tickets. Visitors to the city may also find the cartographic materials prepared by the Riga Tourist Information Centre in the Old Town useful, as well as other information on the city, public transport and current events. Riga city centre and the surrounding area are easy to explore on foot, as hotels, conference centres, restaurants, sports infrastructure and tourist attractions are located within a condensed area at easily accessible distances.
Daily costs compared with major Nordic cities
Compared with major Nordic cities, one of Riga’s key advantages in hosting international events is not only its compact urban environment, but also lower daily costs, which are beneficial for both event participants and organisers. In Riga, a meal in an inexpensive restaurant costs around EUR 12 on average, while dinner for two people in a mid-range restaurant costs around EUR 60. By comparison, in Helsinki the respective costs are around EUR 15 and EUR 90; in Copenhagen, around DKK 150 and DKK 800, approximately EUR 20 and EUR 107; and around SEK 160 and SEK 1,025, approximately EUR 14 and EUR 91, in Stockholm. In the area of gastronomy alone, it is clear that Riga can offer lower costs than several Nordic capitals.
A similar difference is visible in public transport. In Riga, a 90-minute public transport ticket costs EUR 1.50 and a 24-hour ticket costs EUR 5. In Helsinki, a single ticket costs EUR 3.30; in Stockholm, a single journey costs SEK 43, approximately EUR 4; while in Copenhagen, the price of a 24-hour City Pass starts from DKK 100, approximately EUR 13. This means that travel between the airport, hotel, event venue and city centre in Riga usually has a smaller impact on overall event budgets.
When choosing Riga and Latvia for hosting international events, organisers can rely not only on the city’s infrastructure, experience and competitive costs, but also on professional institutional support. In cooperation with the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA), consultations, practical assistance and individually tailored solutions for the planning and implementation of various events are always available.
