27 September is the International Tourism Day

The share of tourists arriving in Estonia is less than half a per cent in the tourism of Europe

According to the data of the UN World Tourism Organization, 903 million foreign tourists staying overnight travelled in the world in 2007. This is 7% more than a year ago. More than half of the tourists travelling in the world visited the European countries, less than half a per cent of them came to Estonia. Compared to the previous year, 5% more tourists arrived in the European countries, but 2% fewer tourists arrived in Estonia. In 2007, Estonia received 1.9 million foreign tourists who stayed overnight, this makes 1.4 foreign tourists per Estonian resident. 984 accommodation establishments with 19,000 rooms and 46,000 bed places offered their services to foreign tourists in Estonia. 1.4 million foreign tourists used the services of Estonian accommodation establishments last year. The majority of clients in accommodation establishments came from Finland accounting for more than a half of foreign tourists who stayed in accommodation establishments. Decrease in the number of tourists from Finland was also the main reason for the last year’s decline in the total number of foreign tourists visiting Estonia.

First and foremost, foreign tourists come to Estonia to spend their holidays. More than half of the respondents interviewed by Statistics Estonia in the framework of the survey “Foreign Visitors in Estonia” marked ’holiday trip’ as the main purpose for visiting Estonia. 7% came to a shopping trip, 12% visited relatives and acquaintances and the remaining proportion of respondents had some other reason for visiting Estonia. Mostly the tourists from more distant countries — Italy, the United States of America, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom — considered their visit to Estonia as a holiday trip. But the biggest cross-border shoppers were visitors from Finland. A foreign visitor left on average 2,624 kroons in Estonia.

Residents of Estonia are also fond of travelling. The data of “Tourism Survey of Estonian Population” revealed that in 2007 every second Estonian resident made at least one foreign trip lasting for more than one day. According to the data of the survey, the 15–74-year-old Estonian residents made a total number of 677,000 overnight trips to foreign countries last year. In organizing trips, travellers were assisted by travel agencies and tour operators who mediated foreign trips for more than half a million persons. Although our neighbour country Finland held the first place among the Estonian residents as the destination of trip, other popular destinations of holiday trips included Egypt, Spain, Turkey, Greece and Italy. 49% of outbound tourists were women and 51% — men. The average sum of money spent on a trip was 9,189 kroons, 4,433 kroons of the referred sum was spent before the trip.

Overnight tourists in the world, 2004–2007 (millions)

Source: UN World Tourism Organization, Enterprise Estonia / Estonian Tourist Board