While this represented a rise on the year, the figure is still 5 percent lower than that for the last pre-pandemic year, 2019.

Tourists spent a total of 6.65 million nights in accommodation establishments in Estonia, the agency reported.

Tourists from outside Estonia accounted for 3.67 million nights of the total; domestic tourists for the remaining 2.98 million nights.

Helga Laurmaa, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that the number of foreign tourists put up in Estonia in 2024 came to 1.86 million, while the figure for domestic tourists came to nearly 1.76 million, she said (this would include repeat trips by the same person, given Estonia's population is around 1.3 million – ed.).

Laurmaa said: "Compared with 2023, there were 11 percent more foreign tourists, while the number of domestic tourists remained at the same level."

"If we compare last year's figures with 2019's, which was the pre-pandemic record year, the number of accommodated domestic tourists has risen by over 200,000, but at the same time, the number of foreign tourists has fallen by almost 400,000," Laurmaa noted.

In December 2024 alone, there were 280,000 tourists accommodated in Estonia, while they stayed for a total of 515,000 nights.

Accommodation businesses served 133,000 domestic and nearly 148,000 foreign tourists, who spent 218,000 and almost 298,000 nights, respectively, in the last month of last year.

Compared with December 2023, there were 3 percent more tourists accommodated.

The number of domestic tourists also rose, by 2 percent, and the number of foreign tourists was up by 5 percent.

"In December 2024, there were 933 accommodation establishments open for tourists, with 21,000 rooms and 48,000 bed places available for guests. The room occupancy rate stood at 46 percent. The average cost of a guest night was €49 per person, which is the same as for December 2023, but 29 percent more expensive than in December 2019," Laurmaa went on.

73 percent of foreign tourists and 29 percent of domestic tourists chose to stay overnight in Harju County, the most populous region of the country and which includes Tallinn.

Other popular counties for overnight stays were Pärnu, Tartu, Ida-Viru counties, and Saaremaa.

The cost of an overnight stay per person was highest (at €53 per person per night on average) in Harju County, just less than that at €52 in Lääne-Viru County, and €48 on Saaremaa.

A guest night cost €46 in Ida-Viru, Lääne, and Valga counties, €44 in Pärnu County, and €41 in Tartu County.

By county of origin, tourist arrivals from Finland totaled 696,000 in 2024.

This figure was at a similar level compared with 2023 but was 13 percent smaller than in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic.

The number of accommodated tourists visiting Estonia from its southern neighbor, Latvia, stood at nearly 251,000; 9 percent more than in 2023 and 37 percent more than in 2019.

The other countries in the top five in terms of arrivals were Germany (with 117,000 tourists), Lithuania (with 81,000), and the U.K. (70,000).

The number of domestic tourists in 2024 remained at a similar level year on year but rose by 14 percent when compared with 2019 – the rise of domestic tourism was a feature of the pandemic and has not fully subsided since then.

More detailed information from Statistics Estonia is here, here and (latter link in Estonian) here.

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