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Published: 27 January 2022

European tourism to Lapland set a new record in December

In December 2021 there were five per cent more overnight stays by European tourists in Lapland than in December 2019 before the pandemic. The share of British tourists was nearly half of all non-resident overnight stays in Lapland. In Finland, overnight stays by non-resident tourists decreased by 25 per cent compared to December 2019. Overnight stays by resident tourists exceeded the level of December 2019 preceding the pandemic by 3 per cent. The total amount of overnight stays was 1.61 million, which was 9 per cent more than two years ago. 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.

Monthly overnight stays at accommodation establishments, 2019–2021

Recovery of tourism proceeds

The recovery of tourism is illustrated by comparison with the year before the corona crisis started in 2020. For leisure trips, overnight stays by resident tourists increased by 5 per cent from December 2019. Overnight stays by resident business travellers recovered to the pre-pandemic level. Overnight stays by non-resident leisure travellers were 25 per cent less than two years ago and 27 per cent less by non-resident business travellers.

Changes in overnight stays (%) by month and trip purpose, 2021/2019

Examined by region, overnight stays exceeded the level of December 2019 in six regions: Åland, Central Finland, Satakunta, Ostrobothnia, North Karelia and Pirkanmaa. Overnight stays decreased most compared to December 2019 in South Karelia, by 29 per cent. Compared to December last year, overnight stays increased in all regions.

Change in overnight stays in December by region 2021/2020,%

Hotel rooms in Rovaniemi nearly sold out

Among the regions, the highest occupancy rates of hotel rooms were measured in Lapland, 66.3 per cent, and in North Ostrobothnia, 49.5 per cent. In Helsinki, the hotel room occupancy rate was 40.9 per cent, 44.9 per cent in Tampere, 43.2 per cent in Turku, 52.2 per cent in Oulu and 85.6 per cent in Rovaniemi.

In December 2021, the realised average price of a hotel room was EUR 127.97 per day for the whole country. Twelve months earlier, it was EUR 99.88. There was a total of 55,993 hotel rooms available in Finland, which was 6,383 more than in December 2020.

Hotel room occupancy rate and the monthly average price

Overnight stays increased by 22 per cent in year 2021

In January to December 2021, a total of 17.49 million nights were spent in Finnish accommodation establishments. This was 22.1 per cent more than in the corresponding period one year earlier. In all, 15.41 million overnight stays were recorded for resident tourists and 2.08 million for non-resident tourists. The number of nights spent by resident tourists increased by 28.1 per cent and nights spent by non-resident tourists declined by 9.3 from the previous year.

Among the most important countries of inbound tourism to Finland, overnight stays by Britons increased most in absolute numbers, by 88,700 nights. This was 52.7 per cent higher than in the year before. The biggest drop was seen in overnight stays by Russians, down by 217,300 nights. Their overnight stays were 84.2 per cent down on January to December 2020.

The biggest group of non-resident tourists were Germans with 259,000 overnight stays. The second largest group was Britons with 257,000 overnight stays. The third largest group was Swedes with 170,000 overnight stays , and fourth were Estonians with 163,000 overnight stays. The fifth largest group was French (113,000 nights), sixth was U.S. tourists (97,000 nights), seventh Spanish tourists (86,000 nights) and eight was Dutch tourists (73,000 nights).

Change in overnight stays in January-December 2021/2020, %

Source: Accommodation Statistics. Statistics Finland

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

Head of Department in charge: Hannele Orjala

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Appendix tables

• Appendix table 1.1. Capacity and its utilization, December 2021 (27.1.2022)
• Appendix table 1.2. Capacity and its utilization, January-December 2021 (27.1.2022)
• Appendix table 2.1. Nights spent in all establishments, December 2021 (27.1.2022)
• Appendix table 2.2. Nights spent in all establishments, January-December 2021 (27.1.2022)
• Appendix table 3.1. Hotel capacity and capacity utilization, December 2021 (27.1.2022)
• Appendix table 3.2. Hotel capacity and capacity utilization, January-December 2021 (27.1.2022)
• Appendix table 4.1. Nights spent in hotels, December 2021 (27.1.2022)
• Appendix table 4.2. Nights spent in hotels, January-December 2021 (27.1.2022)
• Appendix table 5.1. Visitor arrivals and nights spent by country of residence, December 2021 (27.1.2022)
• Appendix table 5.2. Visitor arrivals and nights spent by country of residence, January-December 2021 (27.1.2022)
• Appendix table 6. Nights spent in all establishments, 2021 (27.1.2022)

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Updated 27.1.2022