A little over one million foreign tourists came to Estonia in the first quarter of 2018, which was the same as in the first quarter of 2017. The number of tourists arriving from Finland was 8% lower than a year previously, and accounted for 37% of the total. In contrast the number of visits by residents of other European Union countries was up 6%.

There were some 209,000 visits to Estonia by residents of Russia, accounting for one fifth of the total number of visitors, and that number was unchanged over the year. The number of visitors from Asia continued to rise, and was 10% higher than a year before. Trips from Belarus were down by one third though.

There were 2% more overnight visitors to Estonia in the first quarter than in the same quarter of last year, and the average length of overnight visits was 4.2 days. Same day visits accounted for 44% of visits. Foreign tourists visiting Estonia spent an estimated 220 million euros in the first quarter.

In the same quarter, residents of Estonia made 800,000 visits to foreign countries, a number that has not changed over the year. Trips to countries in the European Union were down by 4%, while those to CIS countries were up 8%, with people from Estonia visiting Belarus one third more than a year earlier. There were notable rises in the numbers of trips to Egypt, India, Greece and France. The numbers of visits to the US, Belgium, Lithuania, Denmark and the Czech Republic were down by a tenth on average.

The number of overnight visits fell by 1% and the average length of the stays was 3.6 days. Same-day trips accounted for 14% of the total, and they increased in number by 2%.

Estonian tourists spent an estimated 200 million euros abroad in the first quarter of 2018.

Eesti Pank collects data on the movement of travellers as it has a noticeable effect on the export and import of travel services in the Estonian balance of payments, which will be published on 7 June.

The foreign travel statistics

An error was found in the initial data and so the time series for foreign trips by residents of Estonia has been corrected from Q2 2016.

For further information:
Eva Vahur
Public Relations Office
Tel: 668 0965, 533 00619
Email: [email protected]
Press enquiries: [email protected]