Foreign tourist inflow continues to rise in Jan

Overnight stays by foreign tourists increased by 6.6 per cent at Finnish accommodation establishments in January, 2018 from last year and nearly 670,000 nights were recorded in the first month of the year, according to Statistics Finland.

Overnight stays by domestic tourists were nearly on level with the previous year, up by just 0.5 per cent. A total of 853,000 overnight stays were recorded for them. Good 1.5 million overnight stays were recorded at Finnish accommodation establishments in January 2018, which was 3.1 per cent more than one year earlier.

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.

The number of recorded nights spent by foreign tourists at accommodation establishments in Lapland was nearly 254,000 and in Uusimaa close on 215,000. In January 2018, overnight stays by foreign tourists increased by 5.9 per cent in Lapland and by 13.6 per cent in Uusimaa.

The number of overnight stays recorded for visitors from Asian countries were almost equal in both regions; 37,000 to 38,000 nights. In Lapland, overnight stays by Asians turned to a decline of 13.8 per cent, while in Uusimaa, overnight stays by Asians grew by 11.1 per cent.

In addition to Asians, nearly as many overnight stays were recorded for French and British visitors. Overnight stays by French visitors increased by 15.5 per cent and those by British visitors by 6.0 per cent from last year. The number of overnight stays recorded in Uusimaa was highest for Russians, good 44,000 nights, growing by as much as 23.3 per cent. In addition to Russian and Asian visitors, overnight stays were recorded in Uusimaa third most for Swedish tourists. Swedes stayed 15,500 nights and their overnight stays increased by 12.5 per cent year-on-year.

Overnight stays by Russian visitors increased by 5.7 per cent from last year and their share of all overnight stays by foreign tourists was 24.5 per cent in January 2018. British tourists came second with almost 65,000 recorded overnight stays. The number was 4.0 per cent higher than one year previously. French, German and Dutch visitors came next. Good 49,000 nights were recorded for French visitors, which was 16.2 per cent more than in January 2017. Accommodation establishments recorded around 42,000 overnight stays for both German and Dutch visitors. Overnight stays by Germans increased by 2.0 per cent and those by Dutch visitors by 13.7 per cent year-on-year.

The next largest groups were Swedish and Chinese visitors with about 27,000 overnight stays each. Overnight stays of Swedes went up by 11.2 per cent, whereas the prolonged growth of overnight stays by Chinese visitors turned to a decline of 6.9 per cent. In addition to Chinese visitors, overnight stays among the most important countries of inbound tourism to Finland also decreased for Japanese tourists by 7.0 per cent from last year and for Italian visitors by 3.7 per cent. The biggest growth percentage came from the United States in January; 20.7 per cent. Good 14,000 overnight stays were recorded for them at Finnish accommodation establishments in January 2018.