Nights spent by foreign tourists in Finland up by 12%
Finnish accommodation establishments recorded in May 1.57 million overnight stays, 460,000 of them by foreign tourists.
In May 2019, foreign tourists recorded 460,000 overnight stays (12.3% more compared to last year) at Finnish accommodation establishments. Overnight stays by resident tourists increased by 4.2%, up to 1.11 million, according to the latest data published by Statistics Finland.
In total, Finnish accommodation establishments recorded 1.57 million overnight stays, which was 6.4% more than one year before. These figures have been collected from accommodation establishments with at least 20 beds or caravan pitches with electricity connection.
Russians, the main market
Among non-resident tourists, in May overnight stays by Russian tourists increased most in absolute numbers, by 27,000 nights. This was 72% higher than the year before.
Russians were also the biggest group of non-resident tourists with 64,400 overnight stays. The second largest group was Swedes with 45,800 overnight stays.
The third largest group was tourists from the United States with 38,100 overnight stays, and fourth was German tourists with 37,700 overnight stays. The fifth largest group was British tourists (25,600 nights), sixth was Chinese visitors (24,400 nights), seventh Estonian tourists (20,400 nights) and eight French visitors (15,000 nights).
The call of Lapland
Examined by region, the total number of overnight stays increased most in relative terms in Lapland, by 37%, and second most in Kymenlaakso, by 18%. By contrast, the overall number of overnight stays decreased most in relative terms Satakunta, by 5%, and second most in Åland, by 4%.
Regarding the overnight stays by non-resident tourist, the accommodation establishments in Uusimaa recorded 273,000. In Lapland the number was 33,000. However, overnight stays by foreigners increased by 7% in Uusimaa and by 95% in Lapland from one year ago.
The share of the Uusimaa region in all overnight stays by foreign visitors was 59% and that of Lapland was 7%.
January to May 2019
The total number of nights spent by tourists in January to May 2019 was 8.29 million (1.9% more year-on-year). In all, 5.63 million overnight stays were recorded by resident tourists and 2.66 million for non-resident tourists.
The number of nights spent by resident tourists increased by 2.2 per cent and the number of nights spent by non-resident tourists by 1.4 per cent from the previous year.
Among non-resident tourists, overnight stays by tourists from the United States increased most in absolute numbers, by 24,800 nights. This was 29% higher than in the year before. The biggest drop was seen in overnight stays by Russians, down by 14,400 nights. Their overnight stays were 4% down compared to January-May 2018.
The biggest group of non-resident tourists were Russians with 353,000 overnight stays. The second largest group was Germans with 232,000 overnight stays. The third largest group was Britons with 210,000 overnight stays, and fourth were French tourists with 190,000 overnight stays.
The fifth largest group was Swedes (166,000 nights), sixth was Chinese (145,000 nights), seventh was Dutch tourists (141,000 nights) and eight visitors from the United States (111,000 nights).