According to travel statistics by the Bank of Estonia for the second quarter of 2024, foreign tourists are once again finding their way to Estonia.
During the quarter, foreign nationals made 1,142,798 trips to Estonia, representing an increase of 7 percent year over year. Estonian residents made 824,693 trips abroad, 2 percent more than in the second quarter of last year.
Spending by foreign tourists in Estonia in the second quarter amounted to 387 million euros, 35 million euros more than in the same period last year. Spending by Estonian tourists abroad totaled 297 million euros, 25 million euros more than last year.
Eighty-two percent of the foreign tourists came from European Union countries. Their number grew by 5 percent year on year. The largest number, nearly 500,000 foreign visitors, came from Finland, marking an increase of 3 percent over the year. Of tourists from outside the European Union, the largest numbers came from the United States, 49,000. The figure marks an increase of one-fifth over the second quarter of last year.
Trips by foreign tourists involving an overnight stay in Estonia numbered around 693,000, 9 percent more than last year, and their average duration increased to 3.4 nights. One-day visits accounted for 39 percent of the visits and the number of such trips was up by 4 percent over the year.
Four trips out of five in the second quarter of 2024 were made to countries of the European Union, while the number of visits to countries outside the EU rose by 4 percent over the year. The country visited most was Finland with 126,000 visits, followed by Latvia with 120,000. The number of visits to Finland was down by 4 percent, but the number of trips to Latvia was up by 5 percent.
The countries outside the EU that were most popular with Estonian tourists were Turkey with 46,000 visits and Russia with 27,000 visits. The number of trips to Turkey was up by 9 percent, hitting a new all-time high, while the number of visits to Russia dropped by a quarter.
Two percent more trips involving an overnight stay were made by Estonian tourists and the duration of the average trip increased to 3.6 nights. The number of same-day visits abroad was down by 3 percent over the year, and they accounted for 17 percent of the total number of trips.
Source: BNS
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