The number of tourists in accommodation establishments increased

According to Statistics Estonia, in the first three months 417,000 tourists stayed in accommodation establishments of Estonia, which are 5% tourists more than in the same period of the previous year.

More than half of foreign tourists who stayed in accommodation establishments of Estonia came from Finland. Compared to the same period of the previous year, the number of Finnish tourists increased 9%. Among other main partner countries of tourism, more tourists also arrived from Latvia and Russia. The number of tourists from Sweden, Germany, United Kingdom and Norway decreased.

In March 154,000 tourists stayed in accommodation establishments. As usual with the approaching tourist season the share of foreign tourists started to increase in March. If in January and February about a half of accommodated tourists were foreign tourists, then in March the share of foreign tourists increased to 54%. Compared to March of the previous year the number of foreign tourist grew 6% and the number of domestic tourists increased 3%. In March 683 accommodation establishments with 16,300 rooms and 34,700 beds were available for tourists. The room occupancy rate was 36%. The average cost of a guest night in an accommodation establishment was 459 kroons. Compared to March of the previous year, the average cost of a guest night increased 4%.

Accommodation by regions, March 2008

Accommodation	Total	Northern Estonia	North-eastern Estonia	Central Estonia	Western Estonia	Southern Estonia
Accommodation establishments	683	157	48	54	197	227
Rooms	16 299	7 659	1 052	706	3 752	3 130
Beds	34 657	15 438	2 219	1 654	8 109	7 237
Room occupancy rate, %	36	41	33	18	38	27
Bed occupancy rate, %	28	33	28	15	29	21
Tourists accommodated	153 988	85 002	8 383	4 820	29 231	26 552
Nights spent	304 928	156 364	19 061	7 589	73 797	48 117
residents of Estonia	126 533	31 913	14 696	6 528	35 579	37 817
foreign visitors	178 395	124 451	4 365	1 061	38 218	10 300
Average cost of a guest night, kroons	459	538	380	290	381	381

For further information:

Helga Laurmaa
Leading Statistician
Services Statistics Service
Statistics Estonia
Tel +372 625 9261

More detailed data have been published in the Statistical Database.