By Eddie O'Gorman BBC NI business correspondent in Vilnius, Lithuania

On day two of my whistle-stop tour of three east European states about to become members of the EU, I have been finding out about the tourism potential of the Baltic states.

Vilnius is the kind of beautiful, unspoilt city that is certain to attract a lot of tourists.

So far, most tourist visitors to the Baltics have been Germans and Scandinavians.

Numbers from elsewhere in Europe are still relatively low at present, mostly because people know little about Vilnius, and little about Lithuania.

The capital Vilnius is a city of 600,000 people

But already this is beginning to change. The number of Italian visitors, for example, went up by 50% last year, and there was also a sharp increase in the number of Spanish.

More will follow, particularly from the UK, once its potential as a tourist destination attracts the attention of the low-cost airlines.

The local hoteliers are certainly hoping that this will be the case.

The number of hotel rooms has doubled in the last year or two, even though tourist numbers are only up by 12%.

The result is that a lot of hotels are only around one-third full, and some even less than that.

The concern is that when the budget airlines do move in, they will also bring the stag parties.

This has already happened in Dublin, Prague, and Tallinn, and in general the bar owners and hoteliers, having initially welcomed the free-spending young males, have become thoroughly disillusioned.

They alienate other customers, have no interest in anything other than the next drink, and frequently become boorish and obnoxious.

Lithuanian beer is very good, but this is a country with a rich culture, and many beautiful things to see. There is much more to it than cheap beer Kestutis Ambrozaitis Lithuanian Tourism Association

Many places in Dublin and Prague have already banned them.

However, with beer less than �1 a pint, the president of the Lithuanian Tourism Association, Kestutis Ambrozaitis, is resigned to the fact that this could well become a feature of the city.

And he says that with a 30% room occupancy, hoteliers in Vilnius cannot afford to be choosy.

"It's true that it is not ideal," he says.

"The staff don't like them, they are often drunk, they break things, they damage the furniture.

"But the good thing is that they always pay for it, and they pay well. So for now we put up with it.

"But in the long term this is not the kind of tourist we want.

"Lithuanian beer is very good, but this is a country with a rich culture, and many beautiful things to see. There is much more to it than cheap beer."

Tourism is certain to be a major growth area for Lithuania when Ryanair or Easyjet begin offering flights to Vilnius.

It will fuel an economy already growing at close to 9% a year.

The latest figures show that per capita gross domestic product (GDP) is now 4,600 euro, and average income is also increasing steadily, although it is still only around 350 euro a month.

In exports, textiles (15%), have been overtaken by mineral products (18.9%), and by transport (16%), much of which is the re-export of western cars to Russia, but which also includes ship repair and bicycle manufacture.

However, the Baltics remain the poorest nations in the EU.

Stag nights have become a mixed blessing for some European cities

Of the new member states, Cyprus is the top performer in terms of per capita GDP, with 76% of the UK average.

This was about the same as Ireland when it joined in 1973 - this figure is now about 115%.

Even so, Cyprus is ahead of existing members Greece and Portugal, where the figure is only 71% of the average.

Next are Slovenia and Malta (69%), the Czech Republic (62%), Hungary (53%), Slovakia (47%), Poland (41%), Estonia (40%), Lithuania (39%), and Latvia (35%).

For Lithuania, however, the entry to the EU means that this will change.

It will finally put the country on the map, and they believe that it will release the huge potential that exists among a young and highly educated population.