Baltic Outlook: Riga aiport has enjoyed remarkable growth in the last couple of years. Where did that growth come from?

Ainars Slesers: The growth stems from a political decision made when I was minister, to make Riga the biggest aviation centre in the Baltics. I'd realised that we hadn't used the potential God gave us in our unique geographical position between east and west, and that Riga had great potential if we could use it.

At that time, the airport's policy seemed to be to make money as fast as possible by charging high prices for services. I realised we had to take some hard decisions, cutting the tax on passengers and introducing discounts for volume. This is the main reason a string of airlines began flying to Riga: Ryanair, EasyJet, Aer Lingus,Norwegian and Turkish. We really had a boom.

At the same time, I'm really happy about what happened with airBaltic. Not so long ago, the airline operated around six direct flights. Now there are over 30 from Riga and 15 from Vilnius - and not just to the west, but to the east, places like Baku, Tbilisi, Dnepropetrovsk, Tel Aviv and Odessa. The improvement has really shown in the volume of passengers. During Soviet times, 2 million passengers flew from Riga each year. We've managed to regain that level, and our aim is to have 10 million passengers by 2015.

To do that, it's not enough to use our unique geographical position: we'll have to attract foreign tourists, develop ourselves as a conference and exhibition centre. We'll have to build more hotels: there's a boom in hotel building already, and Riga has giant potential.

Outlook: It's not just a case of more travellers coming into or through Riga: statistics show that the number of flights per head of population in Latvia is also growing rapidly, and more and more Latvians are flying themselves. Where did this change originate?

Slesers: It's linked with the growth in competition at Riga airport, the arrival of the low-cost airlines and the competitive policies of airlines such as airBaltic. At a time when prices for petrol and all kinds of commodities are going up around the world, the cost of flying is coming down. That means that families in Latvia can afford to fly as never before.

This is a great achievement, and shows that our policy decision was justified. As we used to say in Soviet times, “No risk - no champagne.” However, to sustain that growth, what's important is for airBaltic to open new routes - not just to the capital cities in the region, but smaller ones, such as Tampere or Bergen. They could open routes to other cities in Scandinvia, the EU and the CIS, to attract in passengers from smaller cities and areas.

Latvia is a transit country, so it can both attract people in for transit purposes and offer them an enjoyable stay while they're here. It's much harder to open a factory than it is to boost tourism: tourism has to become one of Latvia's most important business sectors.

Our main aim is to make Riga the biggest conference and exhibition centre in the region. If growth continues at this rate, we could reach the 10 million mark in 2013. I'm convinced that the number will continue to grow: Riga's real potential is around 30 million, which would make it a bigger airport than Copenhagen, Stockholm or Helsinki.

We're the closest point in the EU to the East. We already have direct flights to New York, and there will be flights to Asian countries. New airlines are developing in, for example, India and China, and they'll be interested in flying through Riga. If you could fly to Riga from Delhi, Bangkok or Tokyo, you could fly to anywhere in the EU from here. Riga's a real success story, and the more passengers it has, the more our economy will benefit.

Outlook: You say that Riga airport's potential could be as much as 30 million passengers per year. However, Riga city itself has a population of only one million. The airport already has plans for the necessary expansion, but can the city's infrastructure cope?

Slesers: We certainly have to build new hotels to make Riga a tourism metropolis, and not just 100-room hotels, but hotels with 500 to 700 rooms, with clubs, restaurants, everything for the guests. We'll have to build big complexes.

My hope is that one day, airlines like airBaltic will not just fly to Olso and Bergen, but to places like Stavanger, Trondheim, Kristiansand, Bilund, Gothenburg - everywhere SAS flies from its hubs. Riga would be a natural transit point between Scandinavia and the East, and it could also become a lesiure destination: it's a beautiful, clean city.

If you look at Dubai, it's a city in the desert, but it's now one of the biggest airports in the world, because they had the vision to make it so. Riga isn't in the desert - it's less than two hours' flight from a population of half a billion people.

Outlook: According to the National Statistics Bureau, 70% of all travellers coming into Latvia last year were oneday guests. The great majority only saw Riga. What is Latvia doing to develop tourism outside the capital?

Slesers: Latvia has many lovely places to visit - think of Latgale, the land of blue lakes. I know that one hotel complex is already being planned to have a helicopter service, to take people anywhere in Latvia. Why not fly by helicopter to the Latgale lakes from Riga? You could build log hotels for fishing and hunting there and people would pay a lot for it - if people go to Africa and South America for the nature, why not Latgale, Cesis, Valmiera or Ventspils?

At the same time, we have to have the infrastructure, both three-star and fivestar hotels. The signal has now got through to business, and there's real interest in building here. Foreign companies have giant plans for Latvia, but we have to have the political will to support them.

Riga has the most banks in the Baltic states, so it's a financial centre. Latvia has very good Russian skills, the younger generation speak English, German or one of the Scandinavian languages, so it could become an international business centre. We have to become a bridge between east and west. If you look at Jurmala, there's a concert on practically every day this summer, with the biggest Russian stars and thousands of foreign visitors, broadcast all over the former USSR. Russians feel at home here, so why not use that feeling? They'll spend in shops, hotels and restaurants, we just have to build up the infrastructure. I know many Russians whose families live in Jurmala, but they work in Moscow - they say it's faster to fly to Jurmala for the weekend than it is to drive out of Moscow into the country. Don't forget, life isn't just about earning: it's about spending, and about having time with your family.

Outlook: One serious issue in relation to Russian tourism is the complicated visa situation. What is being done to improve matters?

Slesers: There have been problems, because our embassy in Moscow wasn't ready for this tourism boom, but the political decision has been taken to improve things.

However, Latvia is expected to join the Schengen zone soon. From then on, visitors won't need a Latvian visa any more: a visa from any Schengen country will do, and the question will be solved.

Outlook: Last year the first domestic flight in recent history was launched from Riga to Liepaja. By car, you can get there in about three hours: why does Latvia need domestic flights?

Slesers: Nowadays, people think more and more about their use of time. Latvia has a good network of regional airports, and it would be very wrong not to use them, so the decision was taken to support domestic flights to Liepaja, Ventspils and Daugavpils.

This decision will give a good signal to the whole region. Investors will be told they can fly to the city very easily and comfortably. If they're flying from or to other countries, they won't have to drive through the night, they can take a connecting flight in comfort.

We have to support the development of our airports. Liepaja is already open: Ventspils will be next, then Daugavpils. Daugavpils is the closest EU city to Russia and Belarus, while Liepaja is close to the Lithuanian airport at Palanga. Why should the people of Liepaja go to Palanga to fly abroad? Liepaja should compete with Palanga.

Other countries, such as Scandinavia, have internal flights, and I'm sure that in the future they'll be profitable here. Of course, it won't be big business, but it's very important politically to develop the whole country, not just Riga.

Outlook: Riga already has a reputation both as a city of art nouveau, and as a city of strip-clubs. Is it possible for both sorts of tourism to co-exist?

Slesers: When we regained independence, people were selling petrol out of trucks on every street corner. Then this business was regulated and civilised. What we're seeing in the city's night-life is, unfortunately, rather chaotic - what's happening in Old Riga is unacceptable. We have to bring order to Old Riga, so there won't be these strip clubs there and people who come in will be able to walk around without being hassled.

At the same time, when new hotels are built, they can set up clubs if they like, meant for tourists - if the tourists want to pay to go there, let them. It's not normal to find casinos and gambling machines on every corner. My personal position is that we'll have to liquidate that in the future and do everything to make sure that the casinos will only be in the big hotels.

In Monaco, locals aren't allowed to gamble - it's only for tourists. In the United Arab Emirates, locals aren't allowed to drink alcohol, but tourists can get it in hotels. Why should they limit their incomes? It's the same for us: let the tourists amuse themselves in the hotels, but not on every corner, because we don't want Riga turned into a bordello. Latvia is a Christian state, we have our moral and ethical view of things. We have to organise things so that they don't hassle the tourists who come to enjoy Riga as a city of art nouveau. Personally, I don't support the idea that Riga should be the second Amsterdam - one is enough…