Home > Statistics > Accommodation statistics > 2019 > March > Nights spent by foreign tourists in Finland down by 0.7 per cent in March 2019

Published: 26 April 2019

Nights spent by foreign tourists in Finland down by 0.7 per cent in March 2019

Overnight stays by foreign tourists decreased by 0.7 per cent at Finnish accommodation establishments from last year and around 570,000 nights were recorded for them in March 2019. Overnight stays by resident tourists decreased by 1.4 per cent and accommodation establishments recorded good 1.3 million of them. Nearly 1.9 million overnight stays were recorded at Finnish accommodation establishments in March 2019, which was 1.4 per cent less than one year earlier. 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 2019/2018, %

Biggest growth percentages came from overnight stays by tourists from the United States and Japan in March 2019

Finnish accommodation establishments recorded around 22,000 overnight stays for visitors from the United States, which was 23.2 per cent more than in March 2018. Overnight stays by Japanese tourists increased by 13.6 per cent, and their number of overnight stays was around 16,000 nights. The number of recorded nights spent by tourists from the U.S. was highest at accommodation establishments in Uusimaa, around 14,000. Over one-half of overnight stays by Japanese visitors were recorded in Uusimaa, 8,400 nights. The number of overnight stays by visitors from Asian countries was 100,500 in the whole country, which was 7.1 per cent more than one year before. Of these, the share of Chinese visitors was around 21,000 nights. Overnight stays by Asians in Lapland fell by 0.5 per cent from the previous year and nearly 48,000 nights were recorded, while in Uusimaa, overnight stays by Asians increased by 8.3 per cent and good 38,500 nights were recorded for them. The total number of recorded nights spent by foreign tourists at accommodation establishments in Lapland was 222,500 and in Uusimaa 201,000. In March 2019, the number of nights spent by foreign tourists increased in Lapland by 5.7 per cent, while the number of overnight stays by foreign visitors went down in Uusimaa by 3.2 per cent from the year before. The share of Lapland in all nights spent by foreigners was 39 per cent and the share of Uusimaa 35 per cent.

Russians and Germans were the biggest group of foreign tourists on the level of the whole country in March

In March 2019, the highest number of overnight stays were recorded for Russians at Finnish accommodation establishments: nearly 64,000. Overnight stays by Russians have, however, been falling since December 2018 and they went down by 6.1 per cent in March 2019. The number of overnight stays by Germans was nearly 57,500 and they increased by 1.1 per cent year-on-year. French visitors came third with close on 44,500 overnight stays, up by four per cent from the previous year. British and Dutch visitors were almost even: around 36,000 overnight stays were recorded for both. However, overnight stays by British tourists went down by 4.9 per cent while those by Dutch visitors increased by eight per cent from the previous year. Swedes became sixth and the above-mentioned visitors from the United States and China were almost neck and neck in positions 7 and 8.

In addition to Russians, the biggest decreases were in overnight stays of Spanish visitors in March. The number of overnight stays by Spanish visitors remained at good 13,000, which was nearly one quarter lower than in the year before.

Examined by region, overnight stays increased in March most in Kanta-Häme, 13.9 per cent. Overnight stays increased by 11.1 per cent in Kymenlaakso and by 4.5 cent in Uusimaa. By contrast, the total number of overnight stays decreased in Åland, by 25.8 per cent, and in Satakunta, by 16.9 per cent. In the whole country, overnight stays decreased by 1.4 per cent from March 2018. This slight decrease is partly explained by the timing of Easter. Easter was celebrated partly in March in 2018, while in 2019, entire Easter fell on April.

Change in overnight stays in March by region 2019/2018, %

Overnight stays in hotels fell by 0.9 per cent

In March 2019, the total number of nights spent in hotels was good 1.5 million, which was 0.9 per cent lower than twelve months earlier. Overnight stays by foreign tourists decreased by 1.2 per cent and hotels recorded nearly 488,000 of them. Recorded nights spent by resident tourists in hotels numbered close on 1.1 million. The number was 0.7 per cent lower than in March 2018.

The occupancy rate of hotel rooms was 55.3 per cent in March. One year earlier it was 56.5 per cent. Examined by region, the highest hotel room occupancy rates were recorded in the regions of Kainuu, 67.5 per cent, and Lapland, 67.4 per cent. In Rovaniemi, the hotel room occupancy rate was 68.7 per cent and in Oulu, 69.6 per cent. The hotel room occupancy rate in Helsinki was 65.5 per cent. The number of hotel rooms in Helsinki grew by nearly one thousand from the year before to around 9,800 rooms.

In March 2019, the realised average price of a hotel room was EUR 107.53 per day for the whole country. Twelve months previously, it was EUR 105.96.

Hotel room occupancy rate and the monthly average price

Total number of nights spent at all accommodation establishments grew by 0.8 per cent in early 2019

Between January and March 2019, the number of nights spent at accommodation establishments in Finland totalled nearly 5.2 million. This was 0.8 per cent higher than in the corresponding period one year earlier. In total, 3.3 million overnight stays were recorded for resident tourists and good 1.8 million overnight stays for non-resident tourists. Overnight stays by resident tourists increased by 1.1 per cent and those by non-resident tourists were on level with the previous year, growing by just 0.2 per cent.

The number of nights spent by Russian visitors at accommodation establishments in Finland totalled good 249,000 in January to March 2019, which was 11.3 per cent down from the respective period of 2018. However, they were the biggest country of inbound tourism to Finland in early 2019. German, British and French visitors came next, nearly even with 163,000 to 167,000 nights spent. The number of overnight stays by Germans grew by 6.6 per cent, while that of British tourists diminished by 0.9 per cent from the previous year. Overnight stays of French visitors went up by as much as 11.9 per cent. In the early part of the year, good 310,000 overnight stays by Asians were recorded, up by 7.8 per cent. The biggest group of Asians were Chinese visitors with around 106,000 overnight stays. In the early part of the year, overnight stays by Chinese tourists also increased a great deal: as much as 17.3 per cent.

In addition to the above-mentioned, the biggest growth percentage among the most important countries of inbound tourism to Finland derived from overnight stays by visitors from the United States, 18.3 per cent. By contrast, overnight stays by Swedish tourists went down by five per cent and those by Spanish visitors by 12.7 per cent in the early part of 2019.

Change in overnight stays in January-March 2019/2018, %

Source: Accommodation Statistics. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Ossi Nurmi 029 551 2984, Kari Keränen 029 551 3208, liikenne.matkailu@stat.fi

Director in charge: Mari Ylä-Jarkko

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Appendix tables

• Appendix table 1.1. Capacity and its utilization, March 2019 (26.4.2019)
• Appendix table 1.2. Capacity and its utilization, January-March 2019 (26.4.2019)
• Appendix table 2.1. Nights spent in all establishments, March 2019 (26.4.2019)
• Appendix table 2.2. Nights spent in all establishments, January-March 2019 (26.4.2019)
• Appendix table 3.1. Hotel capacity and capacity utilization, March 2019 (26.4.2019)
• Appendix table 3.2. Hotel capacity and capacity utilization, January-March 2019 (26.4.2019)
• Appendix table 4.1. Nights spent in hotels, March 2019 (26.4.2019)
• Appendix table 4.2. Nights spent in hotels, January-March 2019 (26.4.2019)
• Appendix table 5.1. Visitor arrivals and nights spent by country of residence, March 2019 (26.4.2019)
• Appendix table 5.2. Visitor arrivals and nights spent by country of residence, January-March 2019 (26.4.2019)
• Appendix table 6. Nights spent in all establishments, 2019 (26.4.2019)

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Updated 26.4.2019