Statistics: Tourist accommodation up 8 percent on year to August
Estonia's hotels, hostels, Bn'Bs, guest houses and other accommodation businesses served 455,000 tourists in August 2024, rise of 6 percent on year, Statistics Estonia reports.
There were more foreign tourists, while the number of domestic tourists decreased, the agency said.
Helga Laurmaa, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, said: "In August this year, 232,000 foreign and 224,000 domestic tourists were accommodated in Estonia."
Foreign tourist numbers grew by 14 percent and domestic tourists fell by 1 percent compared to last year, Laurmaa said, though overall numbers were still 7 percent below the last pre-pandemic August, in 2019.
Tourists from neighboring or nearby EU countries contributed more than half the total: Finland made up 30 percent of the foreign visitors, followed by Latvia (12 percent), Germany (8 percent) and Lithuania (5 percent).
Germany saw the biggest rise here, perhaps unsurprisingly due to its much bigger population; 6,600 more tourists from that country came to Estonia in August 2024 compared with the same month in 2023.
However, Lithuania provided 3,000 fewer visitors on the year.
Most foreign tourists (84 percent) stated that they had come on holiday, plus a further 11 percent on business.
Harju County, which includes Tallinn and is the most populous region of the country, was also the most popular destination.
As for domestic tourists, ie. Estonian citizens and residents staying in accommodation within their own country, the bulk of these said they were on vacation too, at 75 percent), and again Harju County hosted the largest share.
Statistics Estonia reports that tourists from all countries spent 821,000 nights in accommodation establishments in August.
A total of 1,235 such businesses offered around 25,000 rooms, with around 60,000 beds, and reported a 57 percent room occupancy rate.
The average cost of a room per night in August was €48, unchanged from 2023, though 23 percent higher than in 2019, even as demand was higher then.
Statistics Estonia collected the above data on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications.
More detailed information is here, here and here.
The article was amended with updated and corrected statistics figures provided by Statistics Estonia on October 11.
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