Demand for accommodation services grew by 1.5 per cent in 2018

In 2018, accommodation establishments in Finland recorded over 22 million overnight stays, of which domestic tourists accounted for around 15.4 million and foreign tourists for good 6.8 million. The foreign and domestic demand for accommodation services grew both by 1.5 per cent from the previous year. The total demand for accommodation services grew equally much, or in total by 1.5 per cent in 2018.

The demand for accommodation services turned to growth starting from 2016 and still grew strongly in 2017. Last year, the growth in demand for accommodation services continued moderately in every month of 2018 except for July and September, when demand went down by one per cent in both.

The biggest growth percentages came in the early part of the year, when demand grew in January to February by around four per cent in both and in March, when the growth was five per cent compared to 2017.

In October and December the growth was approximately three per cent and in November around two per cent. In other months demand for accommodation services grew by one per cent or remained on level with 2017. These figures are data from Statistics Finland’s statistics on accommodation establishments and they have been collected from accommodation establishments with at least 20 beds or caravan pitches with electricity connection.

Russians, the largest group of visitors

Russians were the largest group of foreign tourists in Finnish accommodation establishments in 2018. A total of 826,000 overnight stays were recorded for them, which was nearly one per cent more than in the year before. The share of Russians among all overnight stays by foreign tourists remained at 12 per cent in 2018 just like in 2017.

Germans came second with good 628,000 overnight stays. Their overnight stays increased by 0.9 per cent year-on-year. British tourists rose to the third biggest group surpassing Swedes with their 593,000 overnight stays. The number was 1.2 per cent higher than in 2017. British visitors were followed by Swedes, whose number of overnight stays at accommodation establishments was 560,000. However, overnight stays by Swedish tourists decreased by 6.2 per cent compared with 2017.

Nearly 333,000 overnight stays were recorded for Chinese tourists, which made them the fifth largest group after Swedes.

Overnight stays recorded for French visitors increased by 6.9 per cent and totaled good 299,000 at accommodation establishments.

Source: Statistics Finland.

Among the most important countries of inbound tourism to Finland, the biggest growth percentages came from the United States, the Netherlands and Spain. Visitors from the United States spent 7.5 per cent more nights in Finland and their overnight stays amounted to almost 289,000. Overnight stays by Dutch tourists increased by 8.4 per cent and they amounted to good 246,000. The number of overnight stays by Spanish visitors was 8.3 per cent up on the previous year, but their stays remained at 176,000 nights.

Estonian tourists reached nearly 222,000 overnight stays and Japanese visitors slightly under 216,000. Overnight stays by tourists from Estonia increased by 1.3 per cent while those by Japanese tourists decreased by 9.5 per cent.

Asians exceeded the million mark

Examined by continent, Asia exceeded the one million mark for overnight stays for the first time in 2017. Last year did not differ from the previous year, because Finnish accommodation establishments recorded slightly under 1.1 million overnight stays for Asians.

Overnight stays by Chinese and Japanese visitors covered 51 per cent of all overnight stays of the whole Asian market. Overnight stays by Japanese tourists diminished throughout last year, which partly had an effect on that overnight stays by visitors from Asian countries went up by just 1.7 per cent in 2018.

Nearly 878,000 overnight stays were recorded for the Nordic countries, which was 5.6 per cent down on the year before. Examined by continent, the biggest growth percentage came from Oceania, 13.0 per cent and good 100,000 overnight stays.

In all, 0.8 per cent more overnight stays were recorded for visitors from EU countries than in 2017, the number of nights rising to 3.6 million.

Tourism from America increased by 6.0 per cent and overnight stays amounted to good 401,000. Overnight stays recorded for African visitors numbered nearly 31,000 in 2018, which was 9.1 per cent more than in 2017.

More than 17.7 million nights spent at hotels 

In 2018, the total number of nights spent in hotels was good 17.7 million, which was 1.4 per cent higher than in 2017. In total, 12 million overnight stays were recorded for resident tourists and around 5.7 million for non-resident tourists. The overnight stays of resident visitors increased by 1.5 per cent and those of non-resident visitors by one per cent from 2017.

Overnight stays at hotels covered almost 80 per cent of all overnight stays at accommodation establishments. The share of foreign tourists of overnight stays in hotels was 32 per cent and 31 per cent of all overnight stays at accommodation establishments.

The occupancy rate of hotel rooms for the whole country was 55.4 per cent in 2018. One year earlier it was 55.9 per cent. The average price of a hotel room has been growing since 2011, when the average price was 88 euros. In 2018, the average price of a hotel room was 104 euros.