Home > Statistics > Accommodation statistics > 2018 > March > Nights spent by foreign tourists in Finland up by 7.7 per cent in March 2018

Published: 9 May 2018

Nights spent by foreign tourists in Finland up by 7.7 per cent in March 2018

Number of overnight stays by foreign tourists continued growing at Finnish accommodation establishments in March 2018. Good 574,000 nights spent were recorded for them, which was 7.7 per cent more than twelve months earlier. The number of nights spent by resident tourists went up by 3.8 per cent and totalled 1.3 million at accommodation establishments. In all, slightly under 1.9 million overnight stays were recorded at Finnish accommodation establishments, which was 5.0 per cent more than in March 2017. 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 March 2018/2017, %

Accommodation establishments in Uusimaa and Lapland collected the majority of overnight stays by foreign tourists.

The regions of Uusimaa and Lapland both recorded around 210,000 overnight stays by foreign tourists in March, while a total of good 574,000 overnight stays were recorded in the whole country. In Uusimaa, overnight stays by foreign visitors increased by 5.5 per cent and in Lapland by 16.0 per cent. The biggest groups of foreign tourists in Uusimaa were Russians and Germans, while Lapland was clearly popular for French tourists. German, Dutch and British tourists also favoured Lapland. Overnight stays by Dutch tourists increased in Lapland by 46.6 per cent and those by French and German tourists by 19 to 21 per cent. Overnight stays by Japanese visitors focused almost completely on Uusimaa and Lapland. Their overnight stays decreased strongly in March, however. In Uusimaa the number of recorded overnight stays by Japanese fell by as much as 51 per cent, and in Lapland by around 10 per cent. On the level of the whole country, overnight stays by Japanese tourists decreased by 39.1 per cent, while good 14,000 overnight stays were recorded for them. Uusimaa and Lapland accounted for 73 per cent of all nights spent by foreign visitors.

Russians were the largest group of foreign tourists on the level of the whole country in March

Russians made up the largest group of foreign tourists in March 2018. Good 66,000 overnight stays were recorded for them at accommodation establishments, which was 22.8 per cent more than one year before. German tourists came second with almost 57,000 recorded overnight stays. The growth from the year before amounted to 11.3 per cent. French and British visitors came next. Slightly under 43,000 overnight stays were recorded for French visitors at accommodation establishments, which was 16.5 per cent more than one year before. Overnight stays by British visitors increased by 5.6 per cent from last year and totalled around 36,500. Overnight stays by Dutch tourists increased by as much as 36.2 per and good 33,000 were recorded for them in March, which took them past Swedes to the fifth place. Swedes had nearly the same number of overnight stays as Dutch visitors, but their number fell by 15.6 per cent from last year.

Examined by region, overnight stays increased in March 2018 most in Satakunta, up by 14.4 per cent. Overnight stays increased by 12.6 per cent in Central Finland and by 10.5 per cent in North Ostrobothnia. In Pirkanmaa, Päijät-Häme, Etelä-Savo and North Karelia, overnight stays increased by nine per cent in each. In contrast, the total number of overnight stays decreased in Central Ostrobothnia by 18.3 per cent and in Kymenlaakso by 12.4 per cent. In the whole country, overnight stays increased by 5.0 per cent from March 2017.

Change in overnight stays in March by region 2018/2017, %

Overnight stays at hotels increased by 3.9 per cent

In March 2018, the total number of nights spent at hotels was close on 1.6 million, which was 3.9 per cent more than twelve months earlier. Overnight stays by foreign tourists increased by 5.2 per cent and hotels recorded nearly 493,000 of them. Recorded nights spent by resident tourists in hotels numbered close on 1.1 million. The number was 3.3 per cent higher than in March 2017.

The occupancy rate of hotel rooms was 56.5 per cent in March. One year earlier, it was 56.9 per cent. Examined by region, the highest hotel room occupancy rates were recorded in Lapland, 69.8 per cent, and Uusimaa, 63.5 per cent. In Rovaniemi, the hotel room occupancy rate was 75.3 per cent and in Kittilä 87.5 per cent. In Kolari, the hotel room occupancy rose, to 89.0 per cent. In Vantaa, the measured occupancy rate of hotel rooms was 68.8 per cent. The hotel room occupancy rate in Helsinki was 69.6 per cent.

In March 2018, the realised average price of a hotel room was EUR 106.57 per day for the whole country. Twelve months previously, it was EUR 102.20.

Hotel room occupancy rate and the monthly average price

Total number of nights spent at all accommodation establishments grew by 4.2 per cent in January to March 2018

Between January and March 2018, the number of nights spent at accommodation establishments in Finland totalled 5.1 million. This was 4.2 per cent higher than in the corresponding period one year earlier. Nearly 3.3 million overnight stays were recorded at accommodation establishments for resident tourists and 1.8 million overnight stays for non-resident tourists. The overnight stays of resident visitors increased by 2.6 per cent and those of non-resident visitors by 7.1 per cent from the previous year's corresponding period.

The number of nights spent by Russian visitors at accommodation establishments in Finland totalled nearly 276,000 in January to March 2018, which was 4.3 per cent up on the respective period of 2017. They were still the biggest country of inbound tourism to Finland in 2018. British visitors came next with close on 163,000 overnight stays. Overnight stays by British tourists went up by 3.1 per cent. Germans were in the third position with 156,500 overnights. The number was 7.9 per cent higher than in January to March 2017. Accommodation establishments also recorded plenty of overnight stays by French and Dutch visitors. Nearly 146,000 nights were recorded for French visitors and good 116,000 for Dutch tourists. The overnight stays of visitors from France increased by 15.2 per cent and those of Dutch visitors by 19.0 per cent year-on-year.

Among the most important countries of inbound tourism to Finland, overnight stays by Spanish and Chinese visitors increased most in January to March 2018. Nights spent by Chinese visitors rose to good 90,000, which was 26.9 per cent more than in January to March 2017. Overnight stays by Spanish tourists at accommodation establishments numbered nearly 41,000, which was 36.2 per cent more than one year before.

Change in overnight stays in January-March 2018/2017, %

Source: Accommodation Statistics. Statistics Finland

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

Director in charge: Mari Ylä-Jarkko

Publication in pdf-format (356.5 kB)

Tables

Tables in databases

Pick the data you need into tables, view the data as graphs, or download the data for your use.

• Database tables and their variables
• Archived tables

Appendix tables

• Appendix table 1.1. Capacity and its utilization, March 2018 (9.5.2018)
• Appendix table 1.2. Capacity and its utilization, January-March 2018 (9.5.2018)
• Appendix table 2.1. Nights spent in all establishments, March 2018 (9.5.2018)
• Appendix table 2.2. Nights spent in all establishments, January-March 2018 (9.5.2018)
• Appendix table 3.2. Hotel capacity and capacity utilization, January-March 2018 (9.5.2018)
• Appendix table 3.2. Hotel capacity and capacity utilization, January-March 2018 (9.5.2018)
• Appendix table 4.1. Nights spent in hotels, March 2018 (9.5.2018)
• Appendix table 4.2. Nights spent in hotels, January-March 2018 (9.5.2018)
• Appendix table 5.1. Visitor arrivals and nights spent by country of residence, March 2018 (9.5.2018)
• Appendix table 5.2. Visitor arrivals and nights spent by country of residence, January-March 2018 (9.5.2018)
• Appendix table 6. Nights spent in all establishments, 2018 (9.5.2018)

---

Updated 9.5.2018