Foreign tourist inflow increases by 4% in August

Overnight stays by foreign tourists increased by 4.0 per cent at Finnish accommodation establishments in August this year from last year, according to Statistics Finland.

A total of 0.78 million overnight stays were recorded for non-resident tourists.

Meanwhile, overnight stays by resident tourists increased by 3.5 per cent from last year and 1.62 million nights were recorded for them in August 2019.

Finnish accommodation establishments recorded a total of 2.4 million overnight stays, which was 3.6 per cent more than one year before.

These figures 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 Russians increased most in absolute numbers, by 7,700 nights, which was eight per cent higher than in the year before. The biggest drop was seen in overnight stays by Swedes, down by 900 nights. Their overnight stays were one per cent down on August 2018.

The biggest group of non-resident tourists were Russians with 99,800 overnight stays. The second largest group was Germans with 89,800 overnight stays. The third largest group was Swedes with 73,700 overnight stays, and fourth were Chinese with 49,300 overnight stays. The fifth largest group was tourists from the United States (36,500 nights), sixth was Italian visitors (35,500 nights), seventh British tourists (35,500 nights) and eight Japanese visitors (30,000 nights).