Home > Statistics > Accommodation statistics > 2017 > December > Nights spent by foreign tourists in Finland up by 10.4 per cent in December 2017

Published: 15 February 2018

Nights spent by foreign tourists in Finland up by 10.4 per cent in December 2017

Nights spent by foreign tourists at Finnish accommodation establishments continued to grow, by 10.4 per cent from last year and 724,000 nights were recorded for them in December 2017. The number of nights spent by resident tourists went up by 8.6 per cent and totalled good 941,000. A total of nearly 1.7 million overnight stays were recorded at Finnish accommodation establishments in December 2017, which was 9.4 per cent more than in one year before. These figures are preliminary data from Statistics Finland’s statistics on accommodation establishments and they have been collected from accommodation establishments with at least 20 beds or caravan pitches with electricity connection.

Change in overnight stays in December 2017/2016, %

Accommodation establishments in Lapland collected over one-half of overnight stays by foreign tourists in December 2017.

The number of recorded nights spent by foreign tourists at accommodation establishments in Lapland was close to 370,000, which was 9.4 per cent higher than in December 2016. British visitors were responsible for the biggest share of these and their overnight stays focused almost completely on Lapland. Altogether 167,000 overnight stays were recorded for them at accommodation establishments in Lapland, while the figure for the whole country was good 192,000. The figure was 5.0 per cent higher than in the year before in Lapland and for the whole country their number of overnight stays increased by 3.7 per cent. Overnight stays by tourists from Asia increased to close on 53,000 in Lapland, which was 2.0 per cent more than one year previously. Around 47 per cent of overnight stays by Asians were directed at accommodation establishments in Lapland in December 2017.

British visitors were by far the largest group of foreign tourists in December 2017

The above-mentioned Christmas travel of British visitors also made them the largest group of foreign tourists in December in the whole country with close on 192,000 overnight stays. Russians came second with 81,000 overnight stays. Their number of overnight nights stays grew by 16.5 per cent compared with December 2016. French visitors came next with good 37,000 overnight stays, even though the nights spent by them decreased by 5.9 per cent from last year. German tourists came fourth with nearly 36,000 overnight stays and the figure went up by 9.0 per cent year-on-year.

Apart from French visitors, overnight stays from Mediterranean countries grew strongly in December 2017. Overnight stays by Spanish tourists increased by as much as 41.0 per cent and those by Italians by 15.6 per cent from December 2016. The overnight stays of Spanish visitors totalled good 31,000 and those of Italians over 18,500. Overnight stays by Dutch tourists just like those by Spanish visitors increased by 41.0 per cent and accommodation establishments recorded some 19,000 of them.

Examined by region, overnight stays increased in December most in Satakunta, 24.5 per cent, and in Kanta-Häme, 23.2 per cent. Overnight stays increased by 14.6 per cent in Uusimaa and by 14.1 per cent in North Karelia. By contrast, the total number of overnight stays decreased in Central Ostrobothnia, by 10.1 per cent, and in Etelä-Savo, by 4.7 per cent. In the whole country, overnight stays increased by 9.4 per cent from December 2016.

Change in overnight stays in December by region 2017/2016, %

Hotel stays increased by 8.7 per cent in December year-on-year

In December2017, the total number of nights spent in hotels was good 1.4 million, which was 8.7 per cent more than twelve months earlier. Overnight stays by non-resident and resident tourists also increased by 8.7 per cent each and hotels recorded a total of 633,000 overnight stays for foreign visitors. Overnight stays at hotels by resident tourists rose to good 793,000 in December 2017.

The occupancy rate of hotel rooms was 50.3 per cent in December. One year earlier, it was 48.0 per cent. Examined by region, the highest hotel room occupancy rates were recorded in Lapland, 71.6 per cent, and Uusimaa, 60.2 per cent. In Rovaniemi, the hotel room occupancy was 90.2 per cent and in Inari 77.7 per cent. The hotel room occupancy rate in Helsinki was 66.3 per cent.

In December 2017, the realised average price of a hotel room was EUR 112.64 per day for the whole country. Twelve months previously, it was EUR 101.42.

Hotel room occupancy rate and the monthly average price

Total number of nights spent at all accommodation establishments grew by 5.3 per cent in 2017

According to preliminary data, the number of nights spent at accommodation establishments in Finland was record high and totalled good 21 million in 2017, which was 5.3 per cent more than in 2016. In total, 14.8 million overnight stays were recorded for resident tourists and close on 6.6 million overnight stays were recorded for non-resident tourists. The overnight stays of resident visitors increased by 1.8 per cent and those of non-resident visitors by 14.1 per cent from the previous year.

The number of nights spent by Russian visitors at accommodation establishments in Finland totalled good 809,000 in January to December 2017, which was 16.0 per cent up on the respective period of 2016. They were still the biggest country of inbound tourism to Finland. Germans came second with 614,000 overnight stays. Their number of overnight stays was 13.6 per cent higher than in January to December 2016. Swedes were in third position with 593,000 overnight stays. The increase from the corresponding period last year was 8.0 per cent. British tourists came a close fourth with 580,000 overnight stays. Their overnight stays at accommodation establishments increased by 15.9 per cent.

Nights spent by visitors from all the most important countries of inbound tourism to Finland increased in January to December 2017. Of them, overnight stays by Chinese visitors increased most and their number of overnight stays rose to good 311,000, which was 34.3 per cent more than in the corresponding period in 2016. If overnight stays are examined for entire Asia, the growth amounted to 21.2 per cent with China, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore acting as the growth engines. All in all, Finnish accommodation establishments recorded good one million overnight stays for visitors from Asia in 2017.

In addition to those mentioned above, over 250,000 overnight stays were recorded for visitors from France and the United States. Overnight stays by French tourists increased by 10.1 per cent and those by American tourists by 15.1 per cent. Overnight stays by Dutch and Spanish visitors grew strongly in January to December 2017. Nearly 225,000 overnight stays were recorded for Dutch visitors, which was 28.7 per cent more than in January to December 2016. Overnight stays by Spanish tourists grew by 22.4 per cent and they amounted to 154,000 in 2017.

Change in overnight stays in January-December 2017/2016, %

Source: Accommodation Statistics. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Marjut Tuominen 029 551 3556, Ossi Nurmi 029 551 2984, liikenne.matkailu@stat.fi

Director in charge: Sami Saarikivi

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Appendix tables

• Appendix table 1.1. Capacity and its utilization, December 2017 (15.2.2018)
• Appendix table 1.2. Capacity and its utilization, January-December 2017 (15.2.2018)
• Appendix table 2.1. Nights spent in all establishments, December 2017 (15.2.2018)
• Appendix table 2.2. Nights spent in all establishments, January-December 2017 (15.2.2018)
• Appendix table 3.1. Hotel capacity and capacity utilization, December 2017 (15.2.2018)
• Appendix table 3.2. Hotel capacity and capacity utilization, January-December 2017 (15.2.2018)
• Appendix table 4.1. Nights spent in hotels, December 2017 (15.2.2018)
• Appendix table 4.2. Nights spent in hotels, January-December 2017 (15.2.2018)
• Appendix table 5.1. Visitor arrivals and nights spent by country of residence, December 2017 (15.2.2018)
• Appendix table 5.2. Visitor arrivals and nights spent by country of residence, January-December 2017 (15.2.2018)
• Appendix table 6. Nights spent in all establishments, 2017 (15.2.2018)

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Updated 15.2.2018