Nights spent by foreign tourists increased by 12% in October

October was a good month for the Finnish tourism industry. The number of night stays increased in all segments, but especially among tourists arriving from other countries. The number of stays of foreign visitors in Finnish accommodation establishments increased twice that of domestic tourism.

According to Statistics Finland, overnight stays by resident tourists at Finnish accommodation establishments increased by 5.6% from last year and 1.24 million nights were recorded for them in October. Overnight stays by foreign tourists increased by 12.2% and 0.43 million overnight stays were recorded for non-resident tourists.

In total, Finnish accommodation establishments recorded 1.67 million overnight stays, which was 7.2% more than one year before. These figures have been collected from accommodation establishments with at least 20 beds or caravan pitches with electricity connection.

Source: Statistics Finland.

Stays by French increased most

Among the most important countries of inbound tourism to Finland, overnight stays by French increased most in absolute numbers, by 4,000 nights. This was 46.1% higher than in the year before. The biggest drop was seen in overnight stays by tourists from the United States, down by 1,200 nights. Their overnight stays were 5.5% down.

The biggest group of non-resident tourists were Russians with 46,000 overnight stays. The second largest group was Swedes with 37,300 overnight stays. The third largest group was Germans with 34,800 overnight stays, and fourth were Chinese with 23,200 overnight stays.

The fifth largest group was Britons (22,300 nights), sixth was Estonians (20,500 nights), seventh US tourists (19,600 nights) and eighth Japanese (18,100 nights).

Source: Statistics Finland.

Stays increased most in Southwest Finland

Examined by region, overnight stays increased most in relative terms in Southwest Finland, by 21.4%, and second most in South Karelia, by 13.3%. By contrast, the overall number of overnight stays declined most in relative terms in Central Ostrobothnia, by 16.1% and second most in Åland, by 14.2%.

Accommodation establishments in Uusimaa recorded 259,000 overnight stays by non-resident tourists and accommodation establishments in Lapland 35,000.

Overnight stays by non-resident tourists increased by 13.5% in Uusimaa. In Lapland, overnight stays by non-resident tourists increased by 2.6% from one year ago.

The share of Uusimaa in all overnight stays by foreign visitors was 60% and that of Lapland 8%.

January to October

In January to October 2019, a total of 19.75 million nights were spent in Finnish accommodation establishments. This was 4% more than in the corresponding period one year earlier.

In all, 13.95 million overnight stays were recorded for resident tourists and 5.8 million for non-resident tourists.

The number of nights spent by resident tourists increased by 4.3% and the number of nights spent by non-resident tourists increased by 3.3% from the previous year.