Home > Statistics > Accommodation statistics > 2009 > December > Nights spent by foreign tourists in Finland decreased by 12 per cent in December 2009

Published: 11 February 2010

Nights spent by foreign tourists in Finland decreased by 12 per cent in December 2009

The number of recorded nights spent by foreign tourists at Finnish accommodation establishments in December 2009 was nearly 444,000, which was 12 per cent lower than in December 2008. In contrast, the number of nights spent by resident tourists increased by one per cent from the previous year and they overnighted 743,000 times at accommodation establishments. The total number of overnight stays decreased by four per cent from one year back and accommodation establishments recorded a total of 1.2 million of them in December 2009. These figures are preliminary data from Statistics Finland's statistics on accommodation establishments and they have been collected from accommodation establishments with at least 10 rooms, cottages, or caravan pitches with electricity connection, and youth hostels.

The number of overnight stays at Finnish accommodation establishments fell every month throughout 2009, and December was no exception to this rule. However, there was some growth in the number of overnight stays by country in December 2009. The number of overnight stays by Norwegian and Japanese tourists increased by eight to nine per cent from the previous year. Overnight stays of both French and U.S. tourists also grew by two per cent. Travelling to Finland declined from all the other main tourist countries compared with the previous year. British visitors were the largest group of foreign tourists in December with their 108,000 overnight stays. However, this was 23 per cent less than the year before. Russian visitors came next and accommodation establishments recorded for them 101,000 overnight stays, which was 17 per cent less than one year earlier. Germans came third with good 26,000 nights spent, which was three per cent down on December 2008.

Year-on-year change in nights spent in December 2009 / 2008, %
Twelve main countries of residence of tourists having spent nights in Finland, share in 2008 in brackets

The standard industrial classification TOL 2008 was introduced in these Tourism Statistics starting from data concerning January 2009. The introduction has caused minor changes to data on the number of establishments in hotels statistics. For further information about the TOL 2008 classification see the TOL 2008 section on Statistics Finland's website.

Source: Statistics Finland's Tourism Statistics. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Marjut Tuominen +358 9 1734 3556, Ritva Marin +358 9 1734 2552, liikenne.matkailu@stat.fi

Director in charge: Hannele Orjala

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Last updated 11.2.2010