205,000 tourists: number of accommodated tourists up by 6% in January
According to Statistics Estonia, accommodation establishments served 205,000 tourists in January 2025, which is 6% more than in the same month a year earlier. The number of foreign tourists increased by 15%, while the number of domestic tourists decreased by 1%.
Helga Laurmaa, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that 95,000 foreign and 110,000 domestic tourists were accommodated in Estonia in January 2025.
Year on year, the number of domestic tourists fell, as it did in several months in 2024. The number of tourists in January 2025 was 8% smaller than in January of 2020, the last pre-pandemic peak month. “Compared with the January before the crisis, there were 15,000 more domestic tourists accommodated, while the number of foreign tourists was lower by 33,000,” added Laurmaa.
30,000 tourists arrived from Finland, representing 32% of all accommodated foreign tourists. Accommodation establishments served 18,000 tourists from Latvia (19%) and nearly 5,000 tourists from Lithuania and the United Kingdom (each accounting for 5% of foreign tourists). Compared with January 2024, the numbers of accommodated tourists from the neighbouring countries Finland and Latvia rose by 23% and 14%, respectively, and there were 13% more tourists from Lithuania and 3% more tourists from the UK.
78% of accommodated foreign tourists were on holiday and 17% were on business trips. 77% of foreign tourists preferred to stay overnight in Harju county, followed by Pärnu (11%), Tartu (6%) and Ida-Viru (2%) counties. Lääne-Viru, Saare, Valga and Võru counties each accommodated 1% of the foreign tourists.
In the case of accommodated domestic tourists, 72% were on holiday and 19% were on business trips. The biggest share of domestic tourists were accommodated in Harju county (32%), followed by Pärnu (14%), Tartu (11%), Ida-Viru (10%) and Valga (8%) counties.
Tourists spent a total of 368,000 nights in accommodation establishments: foreign tourists stayed for 187,000 nights and domestic tourists for 181,000 nights in total.
In January, 907 accommodation establishments served visitors in Estonia. There were 21,000 rooms and 48,000 bed places available for guests. The room occupancy rate was 35%. The average cost of a guest night was €45 per person, which is 4% more than in January 2024 and 18% more than in January 2020. The cost of an overnight stay per person was €52 in Tartu county, €47 in Saare county, €46 in Harju county, €44 in Ida-Viru county and €38 in Pärnu county.
Statistics Estonia collects and analyses accommodation data for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications with the aim to determine the economic situation in Estonia.
See also the dedicated section on tourism, accommodation and food service and the tourism industry dashboard.
More detailed data have been published in the statistical database.
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For further information:
Susann Kivi
Communications Partner
Marketing and Dissemination Department
Statistics Estonia
Tel +372 5696 6484
press [at] stat.ee (press[at]stat[dot]ee)