In Q2 2022, Estonian residents made 309,000 outbound overnight trips, ie. trips outside Estonia, and 684,000 domestic overnight trips, where "overnight" means one or more nights spent, Statistics Estonia reports, based on the findings of a survey it conducted.

The number of outbound trips with a duration of one-to-three nights is bouncing back to pre-pandemic levels, the state agency says – it stood at 115,000 in the second quarter, which is seven times higher than in Q2 2021.

Estonian residents spent 1.4 million nights on domestic trips and 1.8 million nights on trips abroad in total in Q2 2022.

Epp Remmelg, analyst at Statistics Estonia, said of the results that: "According to the survey on the travelling of Estonian residents, 2018 and 2019 were the busiest years for travel in the last decade. Travelling was drastically curbed by the coronavirus pandemic, but there are now signs of recovery.

"In Q2 2022, the number of domestic trips was primarily boosted by visits to friends and relatives (which doubled), and by the steady rise in the number of business trips," she added, noting this was around half the pre-pandemic level.

"The number of trips made this year is still below the level of the record years, but it is comparable to the figures of the period before that," Remmelg continued, according to a Statistics Estonia press release, adding that the increase in the number of trips of Estonian residents in Q2 2022 was due to the low reference base of last year.

"There has been a sharp upturn in the number of trips made by Estonian residents to visit friends and family abroad, which they had postponed for years [due to the pandemic]. In Q2 2022, Estonian residents spent a total of 515,000 nights abroad staying with friends or relatives, which is virtually the same as in the second quarter of 2019," Remmelg went on.

Residents of Estonia spent 959,000 nights in rented accommodation abroad, she added, while the situation in terms of types of trips, their length, cost etc. was comparable with pre-pandemic levels.

"Compared with Q2 2021, there has been no rise in average expenditure, since the nature of travelling was different during the pandemic – people no longer made short, low-cost trips to nearby countries, and stopped visiting friends abroad. As of now, the structure of trips is again the same as before the crisis," explained Remmelg.

Business trips also rose, Remmelg said: "In Q2 2022, there were 57,000 outbound business trips, which is a similar figure to Q2 2017."

The average total expenditure on an outbound overnight trip stood at €944 per person, a 25 percent rise on 2019's figure, Statistics Estonia says.

The most popular destinations were the nearby countries of Latvia (34,000 trips in Q2 2022), Finland (29,000 trips) and Sweden (23,000).

Italy and Turkey were also among the popular destinations.

Conversely, travelling to Russia has halted almost completely, given the current defense and security situation.

Residents on average spent €276 on transport, €328 on accommodation, €210 on restaurants and cafés, and €129 on entertainment and shopping during an overnight trip.

Compared with Q2 2022 2019, ie. before the coronavirus arrived, the biggest rise was experienced in expenditure on accommodation – up by almost 44 percent.

Expenditure on transport and food have increased by about 20 percent compared with that period.

In Q2 2022 Estonian residents made 684,000 overnight trips within Estonia. 347,000 of these were holiday trips, while 250,000 trips were made to visit friends and 63,000 trips were business-related.

Eighty-nine percent of overnight domestic trips were short, with up to three nights spent away.

About a tenth of domestic trips lasted for four-to-seven days.

The average expenditure on a domestic trip was €159 per person, which is €25 less than in the second quarter of last year but a third more than in 2019 before the pandemic.

More detailed data is here.

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