Foreign tourist inflow increases slightly in July

Overnight stays by resident tourists increased by 7.0 per cent at Finnish accommodation establishments from last year and 2.45 million nights were recorded for them in July 2019.

Overnight stays by non-resident tourists remained on level with the previous year, growing by only 0.3 per cent, according to Statistics Finland.

Altogether, 0.8 million overnight stays were recorded for non-resident tourists. Finnish accommodation establishments recorded a total of 3.26 million overnight stays, which was 5.3 per cent more than one year before. 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.

Among the most important countries of inbound tourism to Finland, overnight stays by Swedes increased most in absolute numbers, by 5,600 nights. This was five per cent higher than in the year before. The biggest drop was seen in overnight stays by British visitors, down by 5,100 nights. Their overnight stays were 16 per cent down on July 2018.

The biggest group of non-resident tourists were Swedes with 121,200 overnight stays. The second largest group was Germans with 99,900 overnight stays. The third largest group was Russians with 88,400 overnight stays, and fourth was Chinese tourists with 37,100 overnight stays. The fifth largest group was Norwegians (36,900 nights), sixth tourists from the U.S. (35,600 nights), seventh Swiss tourists (29,100 nights) and eighth British visitors (27,900 nights).