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3. Travel reservations

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

The Internet has already years ago established its position in making reservations for accommodation and means of travel for leisure trips. Of those who booked their ticket or accommodation in advance, the majority had made the reservation online in 2017.

For leisure trips with paid accommodation in Finland, 70 per cent of the accommodation was reserved through the Internet. Ninety-seven per cent of domestic flights and 84 per cent of train journeys were reserved online.

Eighty-six per cent reserved their accommodation for leisure trips abroad on the Internet. Ninety-three per cent of persons that flew on leisure trips abroad booked their tickets online. For boat trips, the corresponding figure was 73 per cent.

Of cruises with overnight stay on board, 78 per cent were reserved on the Internet.

3.2. Good one-quarter of leisure trips were package tours

Even though independent travel has become considerably easier in the age of the Internet, package tours are not past history. Of leisure trips abroad including at least one overnight stay in the destination country, 27 per cent were package tours. In 2017, in all 1.7 million package tours were made abroad, which is the same as one year earlier.

In 2017, the most popular package tour destinations were Greece, the Canary Islands and Thailand. Of trips made to Greece, 79 per cent were package tours. People also favour package tours when travelling to the Canary Islands, as 76 per cent of the trips there were package tours. By contrast, only 17 per cent of the trips to Continental Spain or the Balearic Islands were package tours. Fifty-eight per cent of trips to Thailand were package tours.

Of the 1.5 million leisure trips to Estonia, which included at least one overnight stay in the destination country, 40 per cent were package tours.

The popularity of package tours increases with the age of the traveller. Of trips made by those aged 25 to 44 including overnight stays in the country of destination, 22 per cent were package tours, for those aged 45 to 64 altogether 26 per cent were package tours, and for those aged 65 to 84 a total of 44 per cent were package tours. Examined by area, persons living in Greater Helsinki made package tours clearly less often than average for the whole country.

Package tours are not as popular in domestic travel as they are when travelling abroad. Only four per cent of the 6.8 million domestic trips including paid accommodation were package tours. Eighteen per cent of trips to Uusimaa were package tours. Of trips made to Pirkanmaa, North Ostrobothnia and Lapland, ten per cent of trips to each region were package tours.

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

Source: Finnish Travel, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Taru Tamminen 029 551 2243, Ossi Nurmi 029 551 2984, liikenne.matkailu@stat.fi

Director in charge: Sami Saarikivi

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Updated 29.3.2018