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3. Booking of leisure trips

3.1. Accommodation and tickets for leisure trips are mainly booked online

The Internet seems to have established its position in making reservations for accommodation and means of travel for leisure trips. Of those that booked their ticket or accommodation in advance, a majority had made the reservation online.

For leisure trips with paid accommodation in Finland, 53 per cent of the accommodation was reserved through the Internet. Ninety-five per cent of domestic flights and 84 per cent of train journeys were reserved online.

Seventy-six per cent reserved their accommodation for leisure trips abroad on the Internet. Ninety-one per cent of persons that flew on leisure trips abroad booked their tickets online. For boat trips, the corresponding figure was 70 per cent.

Of cruises with overnight stay on board, 62 per cent were reserved on the Internet.

3.2. One-third of leisure trips were package tours

Even though independent travel has become considerably easier in the age of the Internet, package tours have not become history. Of leisure trips abroad including at least one overnight stay in the destination country, 33 per cent were package tours. In 2014, altogether 1.9 million package tours were made abroad, which is two per cent more than one year earlier.

The most popular package tour destinations in 2014 were Turkey and Greece. Of trips made to Turkey, 84 per cent were package tours and of trips made to Greece, 81 per cent. People also favour package tours when travelling to the Canary Islands as 74 per cent of the trips there are package tours. Only 16 per cent of the trips to Continental Spain or the Balearic Islands were package tours.

Of the 1.3 million leisure trips to Estonia, which included at least one overnight stay in the destination country, 44 per cent were package tours.

The popularity of package tours is clearly comparable with the age of the traveller. Of trips made by those aged 25 to 44 including overnight stays in the country of destination, 26 per cent were package tours, for those aged 45 to 64 altogether 37 per cent were package tours, and for those aged 65 to 84 a total of 50 per cent were package tours.

Persons living in South Ostrobothnia favour package tours as of the leisure trips they made abroad with at least one overnight stay in the destination country, 64 per cent were package tours. Over one-half of trips made by people from Kainuu, Central Ostrobothnia and Päijät-Häme were package tours.

Package tours are not as popular in domestic travel as they are when travelling abroad. Of the 5.9 million domestic trips including paid accommodation, only four per cent were package tours. One in ten trips made to Uusimaa, Pirkanmaa and Lapland were package tours.

The price of a package tour includes at least the trips and accommodation. The package may also include meals, admission tickets, excursions, programme services, treatments, etc.

Source: Finnish Travel, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Mervi Härkönen 029 551 3254, Taru Tamminen 029 551 2243, liikenne.matkailu@stat.fi

Director in charge: Hannele Orjala

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Updated 10.4.2015