In total 321,245 tourists travelled to Estonia's second-largest city last year. The majority were Finns but there was a more than 25 percent increase of visitors from Sweden.

The number of tourists staying in Tartu overnight has been increasing since 2015. Last year there was a 6.4 percent increase.

Visitors to Tartu are quite likely to be domestic travelers. But the highest numbers of international tourists came from Finland (41,523), Latvia (26,300), Russia (13,956), Germany (12,708) and Lithuania (7,621).

The number of Swedish tourists increased significantly both in Tartu and other parts of Estonia, and this is attributed to Swedes preferring to travel by land or sea for environmental reasons. 

However, despite the strong growth, the number of visitors to Tartu from Sweden is still below the top five for foreign tourists and is similar to those from France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

Helen Kalberg, Marketing Manager of Tartu, said: "Most of all, we are pleased that in the last five years we have been able to increase the share of tourists visiting Tartu when they visit Estonia. While in 2015 it was only 6 percent of tourists visiting the country, by the end of last year the proportion had increased to 8.5 percent."

The tourism sector as a whole showed the strongest growth in 2019 in recent years. Last year, 3,789,955 tourists visited Estonia, an increased of 5.5 percent. Pärnu, with an increase of 8.2 percent, was the most visited area. The number of tourists in the capital increased by 3.4 percent and in Ida-Viru county by 7.8 percent.

--

Download the ERR News app for Android and iOS now and never miss an update!