In July mainly foreign tourists stayed in accommodation establishments

According to Statistics Estonia, in July 345,000 tourists used the services of accommodation establishments, which is 6,000 tourists more than in the same period of the previous year. The number foreign tourists increased, the number of domestic tourists decreased.

In July 221,000 foreign tourists or 4% more than in July of the previous year used the services of accommodation establishments of Estonia. The number of foreign tourists increased also in June and in May, compared to the same month of the previous year. As usual, the share of foreign tourists in accommodation establishments accounted about for two thirds of the total number of tourists. In July compared to the same month of the previous year the number of foreign tourists increased in two more important tourist cities in Estonia — in Tallinn and in Pärnu. Three quarters of accommodated foreign tourists stayed in accommodation establishments of these cities. About 2,000 foreign tourists less stayed in accommodation establishments of Saare and Lääne counties, where in July the share of foreign tourists in accommodation establishments accounted for 10% of the total number of tourists. Last year the residents of Estonia used the services of accommodation establishments more enthusiastically than in the previous years, but due to the rainy July this year the number of residents of Estonia using the services of accommodation establishments decreased 2% compared to July a year ago.

In July 940 accommodation establishments offered accommodation services for tourists. 19,600 rooms and 43,800 beds were available for tourists. 1,500 rooms and 3,300 beds more were available for tourists than in July of the previous year. The bed occupancy rate was influenced by addition of new accommodation establishments. The bed occupancy rate was 50% and it was by 4 percentage points smaller than in July a year ago. It was most difficult to find a vacant hotel bed place in Pärnu and in Tallinn (the bed occupancy rate was 75% and 62%, respectively), but the bed occupancy rate stayed under the level of the previous year also in these cities.

The average cost of a guest night in an accommodation establishment was 463 kroons, which was by 8 kroons more expensive compared to July 2007. The cost of a guest night was the highest in Tallinn (559 kroons). The average cost of a guest night in accommodation establishments of Pärnu was 533 kroons and in accommodation establishments of Saare county — 477 kroons.

Accommodation by regions, July 2008

Accommodation	Total	Northern Estonia	North- eastern Estonia	Central Estonia	Western Estonia	Southern Estonia
Accommodation establishments	940	177	65	71	359	268
Rooms	19 567	8 025	1 657	1 025	5 397	3 463
Beds	43 750	16 471	3 607	2 301	12 668	8 703
Room occupancy rate, %	55	63	39	35	58	46
Bed occupancy rate, %	50	57	34	32	53	41
Tourists accommodated	345 449	164 142	17 716	14 796	94 795	54 000
Nights spent	674 138	292 668	37 878	22 984	208 719	111 889
residents of Estonia	236 264	38 292	28 668	17 261	74 192	77 851
foreign visitors	437 874	254 376	9 210	5 723	134 527	34 038
Average cost of a guest night, kroons	463	543	380	297	469	309

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.