Domestic trips increase, Int´l trips remain low in summer

The number of leisure trips with overnight stay in Finland increased in May to August by nearly one third from the year before, according to Statistics Finland.

The number of international flights started to grow slowly towards the summer, but the number of trips abroad made by air was, however, 90 per cent lower in May to August this year than two years ago.

During May to August 2021, Finnish residents made 13.2 million domestic leisure trips with overnight stay and 0.6 million leisure trips abroad, of which 0.4 million were trips with overnight stay in the destination country.

July was the most popular month for travelling in the summer season, as then 1.3 million domestic trips with paid accommodation and 3.0 million trips with free accommodation were made. Fourteen per cent of trips with paid accommodation made in July were headed to Uusimaa, nine per cent to Southwest Finland and eight per cent to Pirkanmaa, Central Finland, North Ostrobothnia and Lapland.

Spending time at summer cottages was very popular in the hot summer. Overnight stays at both own and rented cottages increased slightly compared with the top figures in the previous summer. Domestic hotel holidays also increased their popularity by good one third from the summer before.

A total of 600,000 leisure trips were made abroad in May to August. The figure includes trips with overnight stay in the destination country, cruises and same-day trips. The number is the same as in the corresponding period of the previous year and over 80 per cent lower than two years ago before the corona crisis.

A total of 420,000 leisure trips abroad included overnight stay in the destination country. One-half of these trips were made to Estonia. The most popular months for travelling were July and August.

Considerably more same-day trips were made to neighbouring countries than in the summer before, as the number of trips increased by nearly 90 per cent from the previous summer.

In addition to leisure trips, 0.6 million business and professional trips with overnight stay and over one million business and professional trips lasting only one day were made in Finland. Business trips in Finland increased slightly from the corresponding period of the previous year.