Number of accommodated foreign tourists up in February
According to Statistics Estonia, nearly 225,000 tourists stayed in accommodation establishments in February 2024, which is 1 percent more than in February last year. The number of domestic tourists decreased a little, while the number of foreign tourists increased.
Helga Laurmaa, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that more than 107,000 foreign and about 118,000 domestic tourists were accommodated in Estonia in February. "Compared with February 2023, there were 4 percent more foreign tourists, but their number was still 11 percent smaller than in February 2020 just before the pandemic. The number of domestic tourists was down 1 percent from last February's all-time record," noted Laurmaa.
In February, the highest numbers of foreign visitors arrived from Finland (over 49,000) and Latvia (over 17,000). Compared with February last year, there were 2 percent more Finnish tourists and 27 percent more Latvian tourists accommodated in Estonia. There were also more tourists arriving from Lithuania, Germany, the USA and Asian countries.
However, tourist arrivals from many countries remained below the level of February 2023. Seventy-eight percent of the foreign tourists stayed in accommodation establishments in Harju county, followed by Pärnu (9 percent), Tartu (6 percent) and Valga (2 percent) counties. In total, they spent more than 211,000 nights in Estonia.
Sixty-nine percent of the domestic tourists were on holiday and 21 percent were traveling on business. The biggest share of domestic tourists was accommodated in Harju county (33 percent), followed by Pärnu (14 percent), Tartu (12 percent) and Ida-Viru (11 percent) counties. Domestic tourists spent nearly 198,000 nights in total in accommodation establishments.
In February, 903 accommodation establishments served visitors in Estonia. There were almost 21,000 rooms and 47,000 bed places available for guests. The room occupancy rate was 40 percent.
The average cost of a guest night was €43 per person, which is one euro more than in February 2023 and nine euros more than in February 2020 before the crisis. The average cost of an overnight stay per person was €51 in Lääne-Viru county, €47 in Tartu county, €45 in Harju county, €43 in Ida-Viru county and €37 in Pärnu and Valga counties.
Statistics Estonia collects and analyses accommodation data for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications with the aim to determine the economic situation in Estonia.
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Editor: Marcus Turovski
Source: Statistics Estonia
