The coronavirus crisis (coronavirus, in Finnish) has brought serious restrictions on the movement of people, especially air traffic. And this has been noticed in March, a month that registered a sharp decline in the tourism business.
According to Statistics Finland, this decline has affected both domestic and international tourism.
Overnight stays by resident tourists at Finnish accommodation establishments declined by 46% from last year and 0.70 million nights were recorded for them in March 2020. Similarly, nights spent in Finland by foreign tourists declined by 53%, down to 0.26 million.
In total, Finnish accommodation establishments recorded a total of 0.96 million overnight stays, which was 48% lower than one year before. 43% of the hotels having reported data for March said they had already closed before the end of the month.
These figures are preliminary data and they have been collected from accommodation establishments with at least 20 beds or caravan pitches with electricity connection.
Source: Statistics Finland
Russian tourism declined most in March
The biggest drop was seen in overnight stays by Russians, down by 36,100 nights. Their overnight stays were 57.8% down on March 2019.
The biggest group of non-resident tourists were Germans with 35,000 overnight stays. The second largest group was French with 30,500. The third largest group was Russians with 26,300 nights spent, and fourth were Dutch tourists with 17,800.
Decrease by region
Overnight stays declined in each region, but the smallest drop in relative terms was in Kainuu, where overnight stays declined by 35%. By contrast, the overall number of overnight stays declined most in relative terms in Kanta-Häme, by 66%.
Accommodation establishments in Uusimaa (Helsinki region) recorded 82,000 overnight stays by non-resident tourists and accommodation establishments in Lapland 117,000.
The number of nights spent in Uusimaa by non-resident tourists declined by 59%.
In Lapland, overnight stays by non-resident tourists declined by 47% from one year ago.
The share of Uusimaa in all overnight stays by foreign visitors was 31% and that of Lapland 44%.
