Summer tourism in 2020 focused on domestic tourism, while the numbers of passengers at Finnish airports and ports were only a fraction of the year before due to the coronavirus pandemic.
This is the main conclusion of the Finnish Travel Survey, which shows that from may to august the number of trips abroad by air was 95% lower and trips by ship dropped by 70% year on year.
During may to august 2020, Finnish residents aged 15 to 84 made 10.8 million trips (including domestic and foreign leisure, business and professional trips). This figure includes both trips with overnight stay and same-day trips abroad.
The predominant type of trip was the domestic trip with overnight stay (9.7 million). In total, 7.2 million of them were trips with free accommodation (to visit relatives in their homes or to stay in their own or friends' summer cottages...), which is slightly fewer than in May to August last year.
Leisure trips with overnight stay at paid accommodation numbered 2.5 million and their most popular destinations were Uusimaa, North Ostrobothnia and Lapland
In the corona summer, travel destinations in Northern Finland attracted more than those in Pirkanmaa and Southwest Finland in Southern Finland. The number of trips with paid accommodation was one fifth lower than in May to August of the previous year.
Cottage holidays
July was the most popular month for travelling in the summer season, as then 1.1 million domestic trips with paid accommodation and 2.2 million trips with free accommodation were made.
Of the trips made in July with paid accommodation, 12% were made to Uusimaa and 11% to Lapland.
In the corona summer, cottage holidays were extremely popular. Overnight stays at both own and rented cottages increased nearly one-and-a-half times compared with the previous year.
By contrast, hotel holidays in Finland were not that popular, as around one third fewer nights were spent at hotels than in the previous summer.
Trips abroad
There were also 560,000 leisure trips were made abroad in May to August. The figure includes trips with overnight stay in the destination country, cruises and same-day trips.
This is just under one-fifth of the number in the corresponding period of the previous year.
A total of 410,000 leisure trips abroad included overnight stay in the destination country. The number of such trips was for the first time the same in July and August.
The offer of available flights was very limited. By contrast, shipping companies operated almost normally, so many trips planned to the south in the summer turned into trips to our southern neighbour Estonia.
One half of all leisure trips abroad that included overnight stays in the destination country were made to Estonia. Despite this, the number of trips to Estonia was just around one half compared to the previous year.
In addition to leisure trips, half a million domestic business or professional trips were made in Finland. Business trips in Finland dropped by one half from the corresponding period of last year.
