Tourism, accommodation and food service

Travelling is a great way to see life in neighbouring countries or in faraway places. Hundreds of millions of people travel every day – for work, vacation or to broaden one’s horizons. Visa-free travel in the Schengen area and the adoption of the euro have encouraged people to visit Estonia and made it easier for Estonian people to travel abroad. World Tourism Day is celebrated each year on September 27.

Statistics Estonia publishes the following tourism statistics:

  • travelling of Estonian residents, including number of domestic and foreign trips, purposes of trips, destination countries and expenditures on trips;
  • accommodated tourists and their nights spent;
  • number of accommodation establishments, rooms and bed places;
  • border crossings of non-residents, including their countries of residence, purposes of visit and expenditures on the trip;
  • economic indicators of tourism, accommodation and food service activities.

In-depth knowledge on tourism volumes, the characteristics of tourists and costs and benefits for the national economy allow assessing the role of tourism in general economic development. Evaluating the impact of seasonal demand helps to develop a strategy for alleviating seasonality. The statistics on border crossings are an important basis for developing tourism, as they provide information on the countries of residence of tourists and their reasons for visiting.

Domestic overnight trips of Estonian residents 615.4 thousands
17.0%
2022 Q4
Outbound overnight trips of Estonian residents 243.1 thousands
19.8%
2022 Q4
Expenditure on domestic overnight trips of Estonian residents 169.0 euros
16.5%
2022 Q4
Expenditure on outbound overnight trips of Estonian residents 1,048.8 euros
15.6%
2022 Q4
Accommodated tourists in accommodation establishments 226,277
17.6%
2023 MARCH
Accommodation establishments 915
0.7%
2023 MARCH
Rooms in accommodation establishments 20,783
4.5%
2023 MARCH
Bed places in accommodation establishments 47,216
3.3%
2023 MARCH
Nights spent by accommodated tourists 428,037
21.2%
2023 MARCH
Outbound and domestic overnight trips of Estonian residents | 2009–2022
Capacity of accommodation establishments | 2014 – 2022
Number of accommodation establishments Number of bedrooms Number of bed places
2014 1,419 23,971 58,095
2015 1,417 23,754 58,072
2016 1,454 24,503 59,471
2017 1,500 25,222 61,663
2018 1,535 24,983 61,193
2019 1,424 25,168 60,957
2020 1,327 24,556 59,640
2021 1,324 24,489 59,486
2022 1,337 25,415 61,971

Overnight domestic trips of Estonian residents by main purpose of trip | 2009 – 2022
Unit: thousand
Total Professional, business Holidays, leisure and recreation Visits to friends and relatives Other
2009 881.5 93.1 317.8 459.8 ..
2010 1,925.6 113.4 725.8 1,073.2 ..
2011 1,561.2 147.3 519.0 879.5 ..
2012 1,761.1 157.1 685.0 899.1 ..
2013 1,733.6 177.2 676.2 866.9 13.3
2014 2,572.3 316.3 831.5 1,406.4 18.2
2015 2,704.4 321.7 1,029.7 1,275.2 77.7
2016 3,253.6 427.0 1,265.6 1,485.3 75.7
2017 3,276.7 406.3 1,366.5 1,376.3 127.6
2018 4,399.1 445.1 2,030.9 1,795.2 127.8
2019 3,486.3 410.9 1,600.6 1,330.3 144.5
2020 2,135.6 190.1 1,198.7 689.4 57.5
2021 2,266.5 206.4 1,354.6 633.8 71.7
2022 2,639.9 253.6 1,523.6 767.0 95.7

Outbound overnight trips of Estonian residents by main purpose of trip | 2009 – 2022
Unit: thousand
Total Professional, business Holidays, leisure and recreation Visits to friends and relatives Other
2009 752.1 150.2 371.7 211.4 ..
2010 955.2 137.4 598.7 219.1 ..
2011 1,054.2 232.3 457.8 359.6 ..
2012 1,146.8 236.9 574.7 312.4 22.8
2013 1,165.8 272.4 652.4 233.4 ..
2014 1,425.5 395.6 701.1 311.2 17.6
2015 1,249.9 338.9 686.8 213.2 ..
2016 1,339.3 422.7 684.6 223.3 ..
2017 1,279.4 318.9 753.0 194.6 ..
2018 2,068.5 502.0 1,228.4 305.1 33.0
2019 1,701.5 400.3 999.6 251.4 50.2
2020 558.1 140.7 337.8 65.3 ..
2021 574.5 135.5 335.8 89.2 ..
2022 1,090.0 162.6 722.2 161.1 44.1

News

The number of tourists continues to rise

According to Statistics Estonia, nearly 222,000 tourists stayed in accommodation establishments in February 2023, which is 31% more than in February last year. The number of both domestic and foreign tourists increased.
Read more 11. April 2023
News

People are travelling more, but still some way to go to reach pre-pandemic levels

The results of Statistics Estonia's Tourism Survey of 2022 show that Estonian residents made over a million outbound overnight trips last year, which is 90% more than in 2021. The number of overnight domestic trips was nearly 2.6 million – 16% more than the year before. In 2022, the expenditures on outbound trips amounted to over 1 billion euros and the expenditures on domestic trips to more than 178 million euros.
Read more 29. March 2023