Statistics: Tourism falls by half on year to September

Tourism fell by nearly a half on year to September, state agency Statistics Estonia reports.
A total of 154,000 tourists spent 285,000 nights staying in hotels and other accommodation establishments in September, the agency says, with the bulk of these being domestic tourists.
Helga Laurmaa, analyst at Statistics Estonia, said three quarters of guests staying at accommodation establishments in September were domestic tourists, and a quarter were from outside Estonia.
"The number of accommodated foreign tourists reached only a fifth of last year's figure, and even though the number of domestic tourists rose, there was an overall 48 percent fall in the total number of accommodated tourists," Laurmaa.
Domestic tourists numbered 116,000, spending 196,000 September nights, Statistics Estonia said, which represented a 10 percent rise in numbers and 11 percent increase in nights stayed.
Foreign tourists number 38,000 in September, an 80 percent fall on 2019's figure, spending 89,000 nights in total – a decrease of 76 percent on year.

The largest share of foreign tourists were accommodated in Harju county, including Tallinn, followed by Pärnu, Tartu and Ida-Viru counties. Pärnu city is a popular summer tourist destination.
16,000 foreign tourists were from Finland, 6,000 from Latvia and 3,000 from Lithuania, the agency reports, and the figures from these three, neighboring countries fell by 72 percent for Finland, and around 55 percent for both Latvia and Lithuania.
1,089 registered accommodation establishments were open for business in September, Statistics Estonia says.
Average cost of a night's stay was €33, a €7 fall on September 2019.
Average costs per night were highest in Tartu County at €42 per night, compared with €33 in Harju and Pärnu counties and €30 in Ida-Viru County.
More detailed information is here.
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