At the beginning of the year the number of tourists in accommodation establishments increased

According to Statistics Estonia, in the 1st quarter of 2010, 384,000 foreign and domestic tourists stayed in accommodation establishments, which was 7% more than in the same period of the previous year.

In the 1st quarter 161,000 domestic and 223,000 foreign tourists used the services of accommodation establishments. More than half of foreign tourists staying in accommodation establishments came from Finland. Compared to the same period of the previous year, the number of tourists from Finland increased 11%. 35,000 tourists from Russia used the services of accommodation establishments, which was 51% more than in the 1st quarter a year ago. Among the Russian tourists New Year tours and international winter sports events were popular.

68% of accommodated foreign tourists arrived in Estonia for holidays, 23% was on a business trip and the rest had some other reason for visiting Estonia. Compared to the 1st quarter of the previous year, more foreign tourists stayed in accommodation establishments in both Tallinn and Tartu, as well as in many counties. 80% of foreign visitors stayed in accommodation establishments of Tallinn, 6% in Pärnu and 4% in Tartu.

42% of customers of the accommodation establishments were domestic tourists. Compared to the same period of the previous year, 4,000 domestic tourists less used the services of accommodation establishments. The share of domestic tourists in accommodation establishments decreased 4 percentage points compared to the 1st quarter of the previous year. A quarter of domestic tourists stayed in accommodation establishments of Harju county and Tallinn, 13% stayed in accommodation establishments of Valga county. 52% of domestic tourists were on a holiday trip and 29% on a business trip.

In March, 137,000 tourists stayed in accommodation establishments of Estonia, 59% of them were foreign tourists. 738 accommodation establishments with 16,200 rooms and 35,300 beds were available for tourists. The room occupancy rate was 32% and it was three percentage points more than in March 2009. The average cost of a guest night in an accommodation establishment was 399 kroons and it was 6% cheaper compared to March 2009.

Accommodation by regions, March 2010
Accommodation	Total	Northern Estonia	North-eastern Estonia	Central Estonia	Western Estonia	Southern Estonia
Accommodation establishments	738	163	47	66	195	267
Rooms	16 174	7 852	957	856	3 304	3 205
Beds	35 340	16 171	1 979	2 046	7 459	7 685
Room occupancy rate, %	32	38	35	20	31	23
Bed occupancy rate, %	25	29	31	16	25	17
Tourists accommodated	136 550	79 934	8 531	5 719	20 955	21 411
Nights spent	271 450	143 883	18 779	10 329	58 312	40 147
residents of Estonia	97 825	21 554	11 897	8 239	25 522	30 613
foreign visitors	173 625	122 329	6 882	2 090	32 790	9 534
Average cost of a guest night, kroons	399	460	382	349	304	340

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.